Takeo, 2010-12
“Rice pot” is a multi-media project by Sophal Neak that draws our attention to give a reflection on the struggle and endeavor of the Cambodia’s women through image, video and story. By featuring a group of women in her hometown, a rural part of Takeo province, Sophal aims to give voices to women who work near the kitchen stove and honor the value and significance of their responsibility and role on family’s nourishment.
Women belong near the kitchen stove, aka ស្រ្តីបង្វិលចង្រ្កានមិនជុំ, is a Cambodia well-known proverb which has been strictly followed by many Cambodian families, especially in rural areas. The practices have been traditionally restraining women from unleashing their potentials through education and going beyond their limits to serve a society, instead, women have been obliged to take care of their husbands and kids in accordance with Khmer educational proverbs and importantly code of conduct of Cambodia's women.
Sophal explained that she grew up in a village where school, electricity and water system was not accessible, albeit it took only three hours from Phnom Penh city to reach there. She told that many students were halted from schools due to poverty and absence of the school inside their community back in the early 2000s. But for her, she decided to walk on different path by making strong commitment to pursue higher education. She decided to leave her village to study graphic design at Royal University of Fine Arts in 2007.
Upon her graduation, Sophal returned to village and had a long conversation with many women in the village touching on their cooking role and house chore responsibility. She started to have many questions around women’s feelings on this household tasks. In 2012-2013, she invited them to join a collective art installation project inside a pagoda using their rice pots. Sophal recalled that those women were tremendously happy to join her project because they could express their feelings and burden through discussing their issues with other women and letting their voices heard communally.
