Siem Reap art exhibit invites introspection through nature
Hong Raksmey | Publication date 06 September 2020 | 21:15 ICT
Khchao Touch has been plagued with existential questions for as long as she can remember. She wanted to know where she came from, why she was born and what awaited her in the afterlife – questions which could be considered unusual for a child to be asking.

“Where was I before I was born? Where am I going? What am I doing? Why was I born into this life and for what?” Touch asks.

She says she often felt confused while growing up. Sometimes she was angry, sometimes sad, sometimes she spoke unkind words. She wondered why her mind swayed in different directions, almost as if she had no control over it.

Nature became something that she centred on. When she looked at flowers and trees, she felt a deep appreciation for their beauty, their inherent peacefulness and ability to draw people in.

She was also struck by the fact that nature never demanded anything. Even in death, they gave back to the earth by fertilising the ground from which they sprouted.

The 38-year-old Touch says: “They [the flowers] get up in the morning and smile. They smile until they die. When they die they still smile. They turn into compost and offer life to other plants. All their lives, they just give, they don’t need anything from me. Is this nature?”

Her meditations on life and nature inspired Touch to launch an art exhibition entitled I Am Nature? which opened August 28 at the Mirage Contemporary Art Space in Siem Reap and will run until November 9.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/arts-cult ... ugh-nature