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Gregg Chadwick's
Exhibition: Whispers of Siam
May 6 - June 9, 2005
Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Art Rental & Sales Gallery
5905
Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 856-6500
Julie Weiss, who designed the costumes for
the films Frida, American
Beauty and Twelve Monkeys, recently stepped into my studio to view my
new paintings. She was struck by the garments of remembrance that ran
across the wall: saffron robed monks, a trio of women in kimonos, a boy
in blue running across an open beach. Julie Weiss said, “ The paintings
all together are like a ribbon across time and experience. We are
following these monks on their journey. We see with their eyes as they
pass by storefronts and streets. We are with them in fate, chance and
accident.”
This ribbon began a few years ago in Thailand during a journey with my
father. He was acting as a visiting lawyer involved in issues of
justice and human rights. I would scurry out at dawn to wander the
alleys of Chiang Mai and would catch the monks on their small morning
pilgrimages. The morning of my last day was especially luminous. The
light was almost incandescent and the blur of movement seemed to create
paintings for me. I just needed to pay attention. To really see. I spent
the time on the short flight to Bangkok watching a film in my mind of
saffron robes glowing in the morning mist. As I waited for my connecting
flight to San Francisco I caught a new clip on the television monitor.
As the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center I longed for
home and my son and knew that my artistic pilgrimage was just beginning.
My new paintings are inspired by the whispers of Siam that I carry with
me from that day. The saffron robed monks in my work are direct echoes
of that experience. For me these monks are spiritual pilgrims that lead
us away from the destruction and waste of violence, racism and hatred.
—
Gregg Chadwick
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Whispers of
Siam Exhibition►
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Fire
by the river—
song and brandy
Across the
river:
Headlights
Copper moon
— Kent Chadwick
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