New shadow puppets in action for the first time at Sovanna Phum

I hardly took out my camera last month. I needed the break, and my other work takes priority. But a few days ago, I stopped by Sovanna Phum and learned they had a special event that evening–a ceremony and special performance to launch their new set of shadow puppets.  The event was attended by many of the regular artists plus people from the community, a couple of donors or their representatives, and others who straggled in like myself.

Eating in a quiet spot backstage

I’m interested in the families of performers. This boy’s father and mother are traditional arts performers. He is studying to become a drummer and his younger sister is studying dance.

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I used to have my artist’s statement on the website. I removed it, because it was weak. It boiled down to things many documentary photographers say, so didn’t serve its purpose. An artist’s statement should articulate vision and means in a way that both the artist and audience can understand and follow.

Here’s a short, helpful article about how to write an artist’s statement. Why write an artist’s statement?

While I believe strongly that the work must speak for itself, and that no amount of verbal deconstruction will make up for a poorly-conceived or executed idea, a good artist’s statement is essential if the photographer has any desire for recognition or progress… I have found over the years that the photographers who can speak or write clearly about their work also produce the most affecting and powerful images.

The article goes on to say, “You have to have some idea of why you want to make the work and what you want to express with it.” Once you have the Why and What, a good artist’s statement should have the following qualities:

1. Clarity
2. Brevity
3. Humility
4. Awareness (of other work that has preceded and inspired the artist)

Here’s my take on this. The artist needs self awareness, including awareness of external sources of inspiration,  in order to articulate Why and What. Then a good statement should be clear, brief, and humble. There is no need to impress people with words if you have really done the work.

So I am giving myself an assignment to write a new artist’s statement that simply and clearly states my Why and What without falling into the traps of vagueness  or pretension.

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I suspect Cambodia would be better off if most of the foreign organizations and people doing development and compassion work left.  Of course, everyone would think they are among the few that should remain.

During the next few weeks, I’m going to blog my way through a book, Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development, by Bryant Myers (1999).  I hope it will help answer some questions that I have about my own work here.

How can I walk alongside the poor in a way that lifts them up, rather than lifting up myself? How can I lead in a way that doesn’t seek control but respects the ability and freedom of the poor to make their own choices for change?  What can I do to support genuine, lasting transformation in individuals, communities, and society?

Who is this for?

In the Foreword, Paul Hiebert says Walking with the Poor is “a masterpiece of integration and application in thinking about Christian ministry.”

Christians have a mixed reputation in development. Frankly, so do non-Christians. Human beings helping others, despite our best intentions, have similar habits of playing god and under-appreciating the abilities of the poor to help themselves, even as we talk about mutual respect and empowerment.

The book is for people who want to follow Jesus alongside the poor. It’s an important book calling for much needed changes in understanding and practice. As for my blog, it’s for anyone who wants to listen and join the conversation.

Key ideas

Myers states some key ideas at the outset. I’ll list them here:

1. The Western worldview separates the world into material and spiritual sides of reality but struggles to see how the two meet and overlap. As Westerners, we tend to focus selectively on material OR spiritual reality, faith OR reason, secular OR sacred, etc.  When we want to get things done, we choose tools for either/or, but we struggle to operate in both at the same time.  Most non-Western people do not separate material and spiritual reality, but they perceive their lives in the overlapping space where both meet. They perceive unseen realities at work in the material world (such as luck, taboos, ghosts, spirits, gods , God, etc). In practice, Westerners speak of acting holistically, but it doesn’t come naturally to think that way.

2. Separating material and spiritual reality affects our definition of poverty. Westerners, and people who adopt a Western worldview, tend to define poverty and its solutions in material terms.  Jayakumar Christian, an Indian development practitioner who works with World Vision (and continually challenges that organization to its core), says “poverty is experienced most fundamentally by the poor as a marring of their identity and that this is caused both by the grind of being poor and also by being captive to the god-complexes of the non-poor. ” (Italics added.)

3. Myers says, “to the idea that playing god in the lives of the poor results in a marring of the identity of the poor, I add that it also mars the identity of the non-poor…The poor and the non-poor need God’s redemptive help to recover their true identity as children of God made in God’s image and their true vocation as productive stewards, given gifts by God to contribute to the well-being of all.”

I’m concerned about what the author calls “god-complexes,” a term that fits all to well. You would think Christians wouldn’t develop “god-complexes” (or perhaps you think the opposite). It suggests Christians have a concept of God that doesn’t really work in the “real world” (e.g., Since God apparently isn’t acting quickly or clearly enough in the people I want to change, I have to produce results myself). Are non-Christians and other religious or spiritual people prone to god-complexes, too? I think so.

I’m not reading this book to play with ideas but to consider what the author says critically and put what I learn into practice.  Welcome to the journey, and I’ll share more after I read Chapter One.

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I would love to chronicle a year of rural village life, tracing the lives of people through the seasons and rituals. But I live in Phnom Penh, and there is no end to what I can do here. I took these last week in Takeo. The villagers were planting rice, because the rains have finally settled in. Cows wander free during the dry season, but now they must be kept away from the freshly planted rice.

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This review of a new book by Cathy Davidson rings so true:

We’ve been trained to assume that working hard means focusing on a single task to completion, then doing it again. But, says Davidson, “the new workplace requires different forms of attention than the workplace we were trained for…

The result is that we feel anxious and guilty, convinced we’re not getting enough done, not achieving an honest day’s work, failing to live up to the iconic model of our hard-working, brick-and-mortar grandparents.

I am working on many things at once. I trust and hope they will all converge, but I don’t know if and when. I’m over my head trying to engage in a very complex world. That’s just as true in Cambodia, or more so, because the representatives of the developed world are here in full force trying to “help” and “make a difference” with so many anticipated and unanticipated results spiraling out of sight. This country is change too fast for anyone to keep track of. Sometimes I crave just one thing to do with my hands with simple results I can measure.

For any one of us who has been panicking about how to adapt to constant, ubiquitous demands on our attention—how to achieve relevant, quality work, even as the workplace is shifting beneath our feet—it’s comforting to know that most people have yet to figure this out, and that it’s not a reflection on our natural capacities or intelligence.

Do I need focus? Must I cut back my tasks and simplify my goals? Or do I need to embrace multitasking and a diversity of aims? Accept my inability to control results? Learn to think and focus differently? Find new and better ways to collaborate?

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