Long read:
An Art Exhibition Tells the Story of a Cambodian Working in Inhuman Conditions in Thailand
BY: Teng Yalirozy November 13, 2021 8:37 AM
After two years on a fishing boat, Van Chhovorn managed to flee, returned home and studied art

Photo: Artist Van Chhovorn. Photo provided by the artist.

PHNOM PENH--An art exhibition held in Phnom Penh features the work of a Battambang Province artist inspired by the harsh years he lived through as an illegal fishing-boat worker in the Gulf of Thailand. His goal: to encourage Cambodians like him never to give up hope in life, he said.

Van Chhovorn’s 20 paintings and 12 sculptures, which are exhibited at the Pi-Pet-Pi Gallery282 under the theme “Odyssey I,” reflex his life on a boat off the coast of Thailand in the early 2000s—a period that lasted two years and five months, he said.

Chhovorn, who was born in 1982 in Ek Phnom District in Battambang Province, grew up in a poor family. His father was a soldier who died in 1984 due to a mine explosion. His mother later remarried but her second husband went missing while he was working as a fisherman in Thailand.

As the oldest child in the family and with no proper education, Chhovorn was compelled to find any work he could to help feed his mother, three younger siblings and grandparents, he said. This led him to work illegally in Thailand, having found a job through a broker.

Chhovorn was 19 years old at the time. “I didn’t finish school and I could not find a good-paying job,” he said. “I worked as a construction worker, but I was paid very little and the money was not enough for our daily meal. So, I decided to get a job abroad.”

This soon turned into a nightmare.

“I only heard stories of the Khmer Rouge time from my mother and my grandmother but working on the boat was like living in the Khmer Rouge regime,” Chhovorn said. “It was hell. I saw people killing each other every day over small issues like borrowing money. On the boat, we were forced to work from 8 p.m. at night to 2 p.m. in the afternoon the following day [18-hour shifts], never getting enough sleep. If we could not do our work, we were not allowed to eat.”

Chhovorn had been promised 3,000 baht or roughly $90 to $100 per month. But after two years and five months of work, he was only paid 6,000 baht, about $180 to $200, he said. Running away was the only solution to escape this nightmare of a place, he said. But this was not easy to do as workers could get killed or be sold to another boat if they were caught trying to leave.

“They were cruel to us: They said they had ‘bought’ us from brokers,” Chhovorn said. “The fishing boat was a dangerous place as people did not have principles and sympathy. They would kill each other when they were furious. As I was determined to come here to earn money and then return home, I tried to be calm and kind.”

On a boat, there would be 10 or 12 Cambodian workers, five or six Thai workers, and the boss had guns and swords, Chhovorn said.
Full article and photos of the artist's work: https://cambodianess.com/article/an-art ... n-thailand

The Van Chhovorn exhibition “Odyssey I” at the Pi-Pet-Pi Gallery282 runs through Dec. 17.
The Pi-Pet-Pi Gallery282 is located at 23 Street 282 in Phnom Penh. https://www.facebook.com/Gallery282/