I'm in Bangkok and it's a bit of a whirlwind....
In May of 2021 I got an email out the blue from a guy named Jan Kath, a high end rug maker from Germany with offices in Nepal and India and New York and, it seemed, a lot of other places. He was doing a fiber art exhibit of moderin-ish Afghan "War Rugs" — these started popping up in Afghanistan in the 1980's and depict scenes of war in a traditional fiber art from. Our local museum did an exhibit of War Rugs a few years back that I went to see. Jan wanted to use an image from Armed America to make a rug, it was a photo of Jep and Diana and Gwen and Lilly. People email me about Armed America all the time. It's the book that just keeps on going. Jan had picked an image from the book and I said it was fine with me as long as it was fine with Jep and Diana and Gwen (Lilly sadly is no longer with us) because more than anything, I don't want anybody I've photographed to feel like I've represented them in a way they're unhappy with. I contacted the family and, wouldn't you know it, they were familiar with Jan's work, even if I wasn't. So I wrote back and said go for it and went back to my life. A few months went by and I got a message from Jan that included a photo of the rug partially completed and ... sweet barking cheese ... it looked just like a photograph. Jan told me that the resolution was 200 DPI, which at life size was 19,700 x 13,800 individual knots tied by hand that made up this carpet. The weaver would consult a chart, choose a string by color and fiber, make a knot, cut the string, consult the chart, and go back and do it again.
Anyway, the rug got made, the exhibit went up in Kassel Germany. Jan invited me out to see it, but plane tickets were like $1600 each and I was super busy so I declined but was very happy for him.
Well, the show did gangbusters, got written up in the New York Times )and it included a photo of "our" rug and a shout out to me, which was really nice) and Jan got invited to bring the entire show to Bangkok for their Biennial art exhibition and Jan offered to get me a ticket and a hotel if I'd come out. And, I didn't need to get asked that twice. So, after a 26 hour plane flight, connecting in Qtar and about 40% of a sweater knitted, I found myself in Thailand, completely unprepared and un-studied.
Jan holding a copy of Armed America with the carpet he made out of one of the photos. 
Here's about 3/4th of Jan's show, it continues up to the right.
outside the building 
Jep and Diana peeking out
The theme of the exhibition is CHAOS:CALM and a lot of the works seem to be about ways that artists dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic — turning their work in to become more introspective.
Look at me, I'm an artist. 
Media queuing up at the top of the gallery to descend on Jan's work. 
Jan demonstrating the hand-tied knotting techniques that make up the 200dpi life sized image 
Jan talking to the press. 
The press having a look. So, I've been wandering around Bangkok for the past week watching the International press, going for runs, visiting a lot of Buddhist temples and marveling at the skill and attention to detail that human beings can achieve. I'm headed back to the states tonight. So happy for this experience.
