Embroidery, 2012 By Chan Molita

"My mother is an embroiderer of Cambodia’s Royal dance costumes. Her work supports our national art form. At the same time, I see it as an art form itself. This work requires so much patience and not everyone can do it. People spend so much time to perfect small details. Fingers go numb and rough. Eyes blur. It takes the concentration of not only the hand, but the eye, and the mind.

One piece of costuming, depending on the style, can take my mother between one to two and a half months to complete. And just the weight of the embroidery can be up to one kilogram. The styles are adopted from the ancient idea of the Apsara.

However difficult the work is, it has a lot of benefits, especially that my mother works from our home. Although she works hard from morning until night, she does not need to work under the hot sun. She is paid because of her unique skills, her manual labor, and this reminds us how fragile life is."

- Chan Molita