Some people have witnessed the killing of their husbands, or they survived other horrific things. My sister is a widow but her husband was killed after the Khmer Rouge. There are different periods in which violence has occurred, and differences in how these women became widowed and how they survived afterwards.
Chath PiersathI tried to write poems in rhyme. I tried writing songs. Sometimes I jotted down a thought. I would keep a log of spontaneous thoughts.
Chath PiersathIn Cambodian culture the male figure in the family is important; when you lose your husband you lose your economic ability to survive.
Chath PiersathArt is really about how you capture different things you see around you and bring them into forms and words and shapes and meaning.
Chath PiersathAll throughout my work, even in the United States, I have worked with the greater Cambodian community.
Chath PiersathI have some advantages of viewing from the two lenses, the two perspectives. I think that a lot of visual artists who come back here from the United States and are Cambodian also write from their American references - looking inside the old culture, and looking at themselves as an American looking into the country where they were born.
Chath Piersath