រំលឹក | Romluk (2019)

    It is very rare that a group of people experience an event that bonds them together so strongly that it transcends generations. “រំលឹក | Romluk” (pronounced Rum-luck | English: Memorial) tackles the subject of the genocide that occurred in Cambodia through the mid-to-late 1970s. Romluk is a memorial piece in the form of a stupa with a pool of water at its base. A stupa is a shrine like structure in Buddhism, similar to a mausoleum/tomb, that usually houses the cremated remains of a venerated individual such as a monk or a nun. 

    This project aims to bridge the gap between cultures and generation by physically visualizing the loss of approximately 3 million lives. Grains of rice have a chance of being dropped every 39 seconds creating ripples in the water representing the possible lives lost during the genocide and the rippling effect that such an event has on succeeding generations. Each chance of a grain drop is a life that was possibly lost. The piece lasts 3 years, 8 months, and 20 days - the same duration that the Khmer Rouge Regime had control of Cambodia. Totalling 3 million chances, 3 million lives, 3 million grains of rice. 

    During the genocide nobody knew if they were going to live or die. With this piece you don’t know if a grain will drop or not. My grandmother once said, “All we needed was a couple grains of rice and some water to survive. We knew [hoped] that we would make it through the genocide”.


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