Almost Human
Almost HumanCategory: Selected Recent Paintings by Chris Gollon
Artist: Chris Gollon
Subject: Being Human
Year of Work: 2009
Media: acrylic on canvas
Size: 36" x 24"
Private collection. This painting was produced by Chris Gollon while he was a Fellow and First Artist in Residence at the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Durham (Jan - Mar 2009). It forms part of the exhibition 'Being Human', which is accompanied by a full colour catalogue, with texts by the other Fellows and by art historian Tamsin Pickeral.
"A story unfolded. This was a story of the scala naturae: the ladder of nature, or the great chain of being. At one end is Insect – the primordial animal. Insects will go on living even after humans have exterminated themselves or mutated into something that no longer fits within the great chain of being. But close to Insect is the companion animal. In Almost Human, we find two dogs, one licking the other (it is more like a kiss, really), the other surrendering its muzzle to be kissed, with an expression of haughty delight and gentle abandonment. There is an intimacy here that makes us almost ashamed to intrude in this act of gentleness and tenderness. What a brilliant juxtaposition! Two forms of animality and life, but also two forms of embodiment. The Insect looks eerie, post-apocalyptic, and gigantic – we have no sense of scale. It stands almost supine in a world for which the human scale has become meaningless or obsolete. The dogs in Almost Human, on the other hand, remind us of our human stature. We are in their world, because their world is our world too. How poor our world would be without these animals that show us in their innocence how to remain tender." Extract from catalogue text by Eduardo Mendieta.
Eduardo Mendieta is associate professor of philosophy at Stony Brook University, in New York. He does research and writing in the areas of moral and political philosophy, with a particular focus on questions of global justice, imprisonment, and racism. His most recent books are Global Fragments (2007, SUNY Press), and with Angela Y. David, Abolition Democracy (Seven Stories Press, 2005). He is presently writing a book on Philosophy and War.
BEING HUMAN catalogue (cover)
For further information on how to purchase the catalogue click here.
