small chairs
Phnom Penh street barbecues offer pork ribs, beef, seafood and chicken with a side of rice and some vegetables. Barbecue is a wonderful thing and it makes me think of a brief while I spent in Mississippi. I met some fine folk in the deep south. Fine as they were, they were often big as well. Black or white, man or woman, these folk were usually on the bigger side of normal. In some cases they were on the bigger side of abnormal. When one frequents a fine barbecue establishment on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi in say, Biloxi or Pascagoula, the tables and chairs are often built not unlike something you find out of a museum of viking warfare. It's meant to hold corn-fed men who probably did a good deal of blocking in an offensive line at some point in their lives.
I think of these large and generally congenial folk in contrast to chairs such as these. It reminds me that one can look at commonplace objects and see uncommon truths and unnatural scars. Cambodia recently ranked as the shortest country in the world. I'm sure there's an entire literature on the relationship between conflict, poverty and nutrition. Sieges, scorched earth warfare, genocide and general scarcity of food in wartime have left their mark on the look of populations. Mississippi has not been invaded since Grant took Vicksburg in 1863 and even that siege took less than two months. On the other hand, any Cambodian over the age of 40 has seen hunger and horror like we may pray none should ever see again. Decades of barbarity, occupation, war, rampant corruption and one of the worst genocides of the 20th century linger all around – even in commonplace objects such as chairs.
I think of these large and generally congenial folk in contrast to chairs such as these. It reminds me that one can look at commonplace objects and see uncommon truths and unnatural scars. Cambodia recently ranked as the shortest country in the world. I'm sure there's an entire literature on the relationship between conflict, poverty and nutrition. Sieges, scorched earth warfare, genocide and general scarcity of food in wartime have left their mark on the look of populations. Mississippi has not been invaded since Grant took Vicksburg in 1863 and even that siege took less than two months. On the other hand, any Cambodian over the age of 40 has seen hunger and horror like we may pray none should ever see again. Decades of barbarity, occupation, war, rampant corruption and one of the worst genocides of the 20th century linger all around – even in commonplace objects such as chairs.
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| Small Chairs Phnom Penh, Cambodia – March 2013 |
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