The Basement Tapes
Location: IAP Fine Art, 65 Roman Rd, London E2 0QN
Date: 23 Nov - 22 Dec 2007
Basement tapes: monotype07
Open Fridays 12.30-6.30pm, Saturdays 12-4pm or by appt.
IAP Fine Art devoted its basement space to this new exhibition of monotypes, monochromes and recent paintings by CHRIS GOLLON. The artist traveled to Rutland to work at the Goldmark Atelier, with master printmaker Ian Wilkinson, in order to make four editions of 20 silk-screen prints. Each silk-screen edition is a study for his major museum commission to depict the beauty and pain of sport in Gollon’s painting of the Henley Royal Regatta (unveiled June 2008). As is traditional when artists work with printmakers, once the artist has painted on the screens, or the clear true-grain sheets, and so created the stencils from which the screens can be used, the printmaker then spends hours pulling the screens, producing proofs, and then hand-printing the editions. The artist is thus left at a loose end, and to save the annoyance to the printer of the artist peering over his shoulder, or playing the harmonica badly to while away the dead time, it is customary to give the artist a monotype plate.
Basement Tapes: monotype04
In this case, Chris Gollon was given a used monotype aluminium plate, some ink, and a roller. Gollon has always loved making monotypes. He swiftly inked the plate himself, and left the tradition of using the tyranny of the oblong plate, by only inking part of it, and in the shapes he wanted. Then using rags, fingers, wrong ends of brushes, cotton buds, spray solvents and brushes, he basically ‘jammed’ using all these media to come up with some striking images and very subtle effects.
The printmakers would run each through the press to create a unique image, then clean the plate and hand Chris the roller and ink to start again. Using this impromptu technique, Gollon created a series of 10 new images, which we have called The Basement Tapes.
Upstairs, we showed some recent monochrome and colour paintings. Gollon first made monotypes in 2000, at Peacock Printmakers, Aberdeen, and then imported certain of that genre’s techniques into his paintings. Monotypes are a reverse process, since it is the ink one removes that makes the marks. In his paintings since 2000, Gollon has often scratched right into the canvas or under-painting with the wrong end of the brush, and to great effect. These techniques could be seen in the monotypes and paintings in this show. We have also shown the Regatta silk-screen editions.
