Rise and Fall (2012)

Sound sculpture, two tracks, 4’09” & 4’48”
150 x 60 x 40 cm

Rise and Fall is an ethnographic soundscape of daily mundane and spiritual life in a floating community of Kampong Phluk village by Tonle Sap Lake, Siem Reap province. Gesturing at both the villagers’ stilt houses and the community’s houses of spirits, the sculpture proposes the interconnected human and non-human worlds.

By respecting the spirits and divinities, the community refrains from fishing in particular times and places. This practice is vital to the sustainability of the fish stock and the ecosystem. The two channels soundtrack combines audioscape from the village interwoven with stories and mythologies told by the villagers along with their annual spiritual ceremony.

The work's title references both the rise and fall of the village’s seasonal flood and those of the sun and the moon, which dictates the community’s fishing schedule.