OBVERSE PAINTINGS
by Fred Chuang
BAGHDAD CANTO
17.5" x 24"
(sold)
This painting was created in a process that parallels the current occupation of Iraq. Starting with an "unsuccessful" painting, based in rich, textured gold/brass pigment, I grew frustrated and neglected the work. After a long period of neglect and some decay, I was inspired to assault it with paint stripper and through this violent process, to flood the painting with red. In trying to preserve elements of the origin that I thought valuable, I created "verses"--the windows into the original painting. Looked at cartographically, those windows can be seen as city blocks with streets running in blood/red. There is even a central, "green-zone" and the faint rainbow of Hope.
