Early Thoughts (I)
Location: IAP Fine Art E2 @ 65 Roman Rd, London E2 0QN
Date: 10 July - 15 Sept 2008
The Trial
This exhibition was the first of two exhibitions in late 2008 at IAP Fine Art of Chris Gollon's paintings exploring his early thoughts and stylistic developments, in preparation for his unusual Fellowship and Residency at the prestigious Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, (January – March 2009). Gollon’s powerful and formally innovative paintings came to the attention of the Directors of the IAS in 2007, and together with some of the world’s leading academics and creative thinkers he has been invited to take part in a major international research project straddling all disciplines from Arts & Humanities, to Sciences and Social Sciences.
For this show I have started the ball rolling for my residency at Durham in 2009. The big ideas (hopefully) will come during the residency with the interaction between myself and the other fellows. I will therefore not be dealing with the themes specified by the Institute – i.e. mind/consciousness – boundary crossing – crises of personhood etc. However, I would prefer to begin my Residency not in the foothills but half way up the mountain so to speak: hence the early start. I will begin with a more general approach to being human. I have decided to put the human being on trial in the first few canvases and see what happens. I will then try to do something different (and hopefully significant) on what it means to be human. Chris Gollon (June 2008)
