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Vandy RATTANA
Takeo, 2009

Digital C-Print, 90 x 105 cm

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In the photography of Cambodian artist Vandy Rattana, plants fill the role of a monument in the landscape to pieces of forgotten or overlooked history. Exploring the impact conflict has on human life and the natural environment, Rattana collected these photos of Cambodia’s ‘bomb ponds’, the visible marks left by the secret American bombing of the country during their war in Vietnam. A history that was overshadowed by subsequent conflicts in Cambodia, the physical manifestation of rice paddies' memories in the form of unnaturally round ponds, and the stories of local villagers that Rattana collected alongside the images, are among the few remaining memorials to this moment in history. 

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© 2021 MADELEINE BROOKS GILLESPIE. Virtual exhibition designed for Art History 226 at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington

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