Form/Space Atelier Program,
Summer 2016
Helene LeChatelier
Uten Mahamid
Exhibition Title: Into Internal Landscapes, Dreamscapes
Exhibition Duration: July 25-October 12
Vernissage: July 25, 2016
Free Shuttle During Seattle Art Fair Ticketholders Upon Request: Fair to 98 Clay St. : 206-349-2509
Premise-
Hélène Le Chatelier and Uten Mahamid portray our inner geographies,
the landscapes we walk along when we sink in our inner world. Beyond
the visible surface, appear hidden continents, lands, unknown
stretches of water, skies and cloudy formations we may or may not be
aware of. Shaped by the passage of time and events in our lives, these Internal Landscapes reveal our inner feelings, fragilities and
strengths, dark and bright sides of us, as well as how we have been
going through our existence.
History-
Meeting during their residency program at Thaillywood Contemporary
Artist Residency, French artist Hélène Le Chatelier and Thai artist
Uten Manahmid interrogate their inner world and the idea of carrying a personal internal landscape.
Both protean artists (writers and painters), but coming from
different backgrounds and cultures, both using ink technique but in a very different way, and with no prior conversation regarding their
intention, they met coincidentally and converged to an intimate
meeting point in their work, giving the impression of viewing two
sides of a same coin. One side is feminine, the other is masculine.
One is softer, the other more tormented. One process uses natural
products, the other uses chemicals. But the result is amazingly close, questioning ourselves about proximity, cultures, differences,
ressemblances, and what slips from us with or without control. The
concept of the “Other” and our relatioship with this “Other” is
consequently in question: what does make us close, intimate or not ?
Are we sure that the ones we feel so close, for so many evident
cultural or social aspects, is really the ones we are close to ?
Without going further, we see how many concepts these questions carry
within themselves regarding transcultural notions, offering a wide
field to explore, inviting us to rethink our relationship with our
environment and people surronding us, considering them with a fairly
new eye.
