Maquette I Two Watchers V

'Responding to the advances of mass communications in the 1960s, Chadwick developed a dramatically new series of beings who sport geometric, television-styled heads. The Watchers, who appear in groups of two and threes, exhibit a trance-like status of consciousness. Recalling the faceless, collective chorus of Euripides ancient Greek tragedies, these figures de-emphasize individuality, focusing instead on the shared commonalities of urban man and woman. While rendered without eyes, ears, or mouths, these geometrically rough-hewn beings ironically appear to be watching TV, surveying a city, or perhaps waiting for Godot. Seldom communicating amongst themselves despite their physical proximity, these beings project an isolation and estrangement that is simultaneously primordial and existential' (C. Chattopadhyay, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, Tasende Gallery, Lynn Chadwick Sculptures and Drawings 1955 to 1991, November - December 2002, p. 6).