ARTIST STATEMENT

 ‘A Cambodian Selfie’ contrasts the superficiality of mass tourism with the real world of Cambodia, a country struggling with extremes of wealth and poverty, corruption and privilege and the intergenerational trauma of civil war. In their tourist bubble focused on the stunning historical sites such as Angkor Watt what is learnt or understood about the current lives of its people?
In 2017 the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs contributed 90 million of tax payer’s money to aid Cambodia’s ‘greater prosperity’. This to a country whose track record on human rights and democracy is lamentable. A government who’s Tourism Minister has stated ‘we have no crisis but there are politicians who are having a crisis themselves’ in reference to opposition party members fleeing the country after the governments forced disbandment of their party in preparation for the 2018 elections. The ‘democratic elections’ held this July were a fraud and a sham.The Cambodian people are once again facing a regime that is a dictatorship run by force and fear.
While the tourism town of Seim Reap expands its accommodation and services government imposed economic land concessions rob farmers of their land and livelihoods. Half of the countries arable land, a quarter of the countries surface, has been conceded to private companies under the scheme. It has been estimated that 85% of Cambodians are now migrants, either internal, or external.
Holiday travel is by its nature superficial and can only provide a small window to experience another culture but how much smaller is that window getting every day as the crowds hop off planes onto buses, following their tour leaders flag back to the safety and sterility of their generic hotel? The Grand Tour has become ‘grand tourism’, the crowds of people descending on ‘hot spots’ are now so vast that whole cities are considering limiting their numbers because of the impact physically and culturally of this stampede. What do these tourists really see and return home with? A bucket list ticked? A series of selfies loaded onto facebook and instagram?
Travelling for the sake of curiosity and learning was an idea developed in the 17th century. WithJohn Locke'sEssay Concerning Human Understanding(1690), it was argued, and widely accepted, that knowledge comes entirely from the external senses, that what one knows comes from the physical stimuli to which one has been exposed. Travel, therefore, was necessary to develop the mind and expand ones knowledge of the world.Today tourism is the world's largest industry. More people are involved, either as a member of a host community, a travel/tourism industry player or as a consumer/tourist than in any other industry. The legacy of the Grand Tour lives on still influencing the destinations tourists choose and shaping the ideas of culture and sophistication that surround the act of travel, but of the staggering 2.5 million visitors to Angkor Watt in 2017, generating 52.5 million in six months, what is the real cost and benefit to the Cambodian people?’Henrietta Manning, August, 2018.