Detail of figure from ?Missing [Apsara]?, Handmade Ink and Acrylic on mulberry/bamboo paper, 70 x 70cm, 2009

Part 1: “Missing [Apsara]”: Expensive Accessories
Part 2: “Missing [Apsara]”: Headless
Part 4: “Missing [Apsara]” Ramvong
Part 5: “Missing [Apsara]” Sexpats I Have Known

Some of what I thought about while painting this mobile into a stylized hand:

* My first email “Sent from a Blackberry” came from a collector in Chicago nearly ten years ago

* Blackberries arrived in Cambodia this year. The young Khmer elite who use them continue to corrupt the country as efficiently as their parents and prime minister have, closing deals in rooms with high ceilings, polished tile floors, and flanked by showy bodyguards with Kalashnikovs

* The court dancers’ hands molded from a young age into supple arabesques, then carved into bas reliefs at Angkor and elsewhere. See more about a fascinating Khmer dancer here from the editor for my first contribution to ThingsAsian Press – essays for To Cambodia with Love: a Travel Guide for the Connoisseur