Vandy Rattana (The Mekong)
Fire of the year 8 2008
Digital print 105.5 x 63.5cm Image courtesy: The artist
Gallery 3.5, GoMA
Vandy Rattana’s ‘Fire of the year’ is a series of photographs of a major fire that recently razed the district called Dteuk Tlah (Clear Water), on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Constructed over a polluted lake, the buildings were home to 300 families. Most of those dwellings were destroyed in the fire, although some were saved through bribery and negotiation with the fire police. Fires are frequent events in Cambodia; as Vandy notes, ‘they are part of our lives, like eating or playing sports’, implying that the most unsettling aspect of this tragedy is its familiarity.
Vandy’s photographs powerfully suggest deeper social conditions in Cambodia – its expanding urban populations and the limited infrastructure available to support them. These images have a strong cinematic quality, with Vandy’s frame-by-frame approach heightening the drama as it unfolds. With their tight framing and stark composition, they provide a vital document with which to consider the reality of contemporary life in Cambodia – a concern that sustains the artist’s practice.