"Khun Thiaw" (Theo Meier) 1908-1982
In 2005, I made a series of nine “slice-pictures,” shot on Ektachrome and Tri-X, with an M3. The multiple slices were mounted on medium density fiberboard and hot laminated (glossy finish) with a one inch-deep, black frame behind it. The size is 200 x 100 cm (80 x 40 inches).
This one is of “Khun Thiaw”, as Theo Meier, Swiss painter (1908-1982) was called in Chiang Mai. Theo lived some 20 years in Bali and 15 years in Chiang Mai. After graduating from art school, Theo left Switzerland and went to Tahiti in the tracks of Gauguin: he found the same thing as Gauguin, that the old Polynesian culture was dead. He moved on to Bali, but was kicked out of Indonesia by Sukarno 20 years later. My wife’s uncle met Theo, dressed in sailor uniform, playing the piano in a cheap bar in the Klong Toey section of Bangkok (the old port neighborhood), and invited him to stay at his beach-front house in Hua Hin. Subsequently, Theo moved to Chiang Mai, where I first met him.
I photographed Theo 1969. The color slices are from some of Theo's Bali paintings; and the B&W Balinese photos are from my photographs. The B&W slice on the right was photographed in Chiang Mai in 1969, at a party with Theo, where a group of Chiang Mai dancers performed.
"Khun Thiaw" (Theo Meier) 1908-1982
In 2005, I made a series of nine “slice-pictures,” shot on Ektachrome and Tri-X, with an M3. The multiple slices were mounted on medium density fiberboard and hot laminated (glossy finish) with a one inch-deep, black frame behind it. The size is 200 x 100 cm (80 x 20 inches).
This one is of “Khun Thiaw”, as Theo Meier, Swiss painter (1908-1982) was called in Chiang Mai. Theo lived some 20 years in Bali and 15 years in Chiang Mai. After graduating from art school, Theo left Switzerland and went to Tahiti in the tracks of Gauguin: he found the same thing as Gauguin, that the old Polynesian culture was dead. He moved on to Bali, but was kicked out of Indonesia by Sukarno 20 years later. My wife’s uncle met Theo, dressed in sailor uniform, playing the piano in a cheap bar in the Klong Toey section of Bangkok (the old port neighborhood), and invited him to stay at his beach-front house in Hua Hin. Subsequently, Theo moved to Chiang Mai, where I first met him.
I photographed Theo 1969. The color slices are from some of Theo's Bali paintings; and the B&W Balinese photos are from my photographs. The B&W slice on the right was photographed in Chiang Mai in 1969, at a party with Theo, where a group of Chiang Mai dancers performed.
