Lukyay | April 2022
Outdoor Interactive Art Installation
Simone Cottrell & Kim Heang Cottrell
Plastic, Wood, Fabric & Paper
"Lukyay" is a representational Khmer altar of baiseys dedicated to our Khmer maternal figures - our Lukyays, Maks & Mais, Ohms, Meangs, and Bonghs. A baisey is a banana leaf decorative sculpture found at Theravada Buddhist temples on Khmer New Years, funerals, and weddings. Each baisey wears colors one would find at temple, as well as a decorative krama peah-neah. The tallest baisey wears a representational au and sapout that has been folded at the waist. This baisey also has a solar light that will shine throughout the evening. Gold is the color of luck and protection, wear white represents death. The smaller baiseys hold incense sticks. Baiseys are commonly thought to be blessings for our ancestors and tied directly to Buddhism. However, baiseys pre-date the Hindu and Buddhist influence in Cambodia and were originally created to be an offering to whom Khmers would consider our original founder of our people - a naga (serpeant woman) named Neang Neak. Neang Neak may also be referred to in translation as our "Dragon Mother". I built these baiseys to pay homage to my ethnic Khmer roots and mythology, and more importantly to remember my grandmothers (Lukyays) and the women descendants who came from them. I created these baiseys from a physical and mental space of recognizing how much I have lived without in terms of my Khmer background - I am living without my Lukyay who died in 2009, without my Mak who lives 8 hours away, without the traditional resources and learning of how to make baiseys, without fully understanding the Khmer language, without even a grocery store that have the foods I grew up on. And yet, I still consider myself a Khmer woman because of the history and culture the flows through my blood. Baiseys are also a reflection that I, too, will one day become an ancestor.
Visitors are encouraged to participate in the baisey by lighting an incense in honor of a maternal figure in their life, therefore creating a shared sacred ground and experience rooted in indigenous Khmer culture in South Fayetteville.
Outdoor Interactive Art Installation
Simone Cottrell & Kim Heang Cottrell
Plastic, Wood, Fabric & Paper
"Lukyay" is a representational Khmer altar of baiseys dedicated to our Khmer maternal figures - our Lukyays, Maks & Mais, Ohms, Meangs, and Bonghs. A baisey is a banana leaf decorative sculpture found at Theravada Buddhist temples on Khmer New Years, funerals, and weddings. Each baisey wears colors one would find at temple, as well as a decorative krama peah-neah. The tallest baisey wears a representational au and sapout that has been folded at the waist. This baisey also has a solar light that will shine throughout the evening. Gold is the color of luck and protection, wear white represents death. The smaller baiseys hold incense sticks. Baiseys are commonly thought to be blessings for our ancestors and tied directly to Buddhism. However, baiseys pre-date the Hindu and Buddhist influence in Cambodia and were originally created to be an offering to whom Khmers would consider our original founder of our people - a naga (serpeant woman) named Neang Neak. Neang Neak may also be referred to in translation as our "Dragon Mother". I built these baiseys to pay homage to my ethnic Khmer roots and mythology, and more importantly to remember my grandmothers (Lukyays) and the women descendants who came from them. I created these baiseys from a physical and mental space of recognizing how much I have lived without in terms of my Khmer background - I am living without my Lukyay who died in 2009, without my Mak who lives 8 hours away, without the traditional resources and learning of how to make baiseys, without fully understanding the Khmer language, without even a grocery store that have the foods I grew up on. And yet, I still consider myself a Khmer woman because of the history and culture the flows through my blood. Baiseys are also a reflection that I, too, will one day become an ancestor.
Visitors are encouraged to participate in the baisey by lighting an incense in honor of a maternal figure in their life, therefore creating a shared sacred ground and experience rooted in indigenous Khmer culture in South Fayetteville.