Artist Interview: Chris Moon

Whether it’s the transient moment between consciousness and slumber, or the fine sketches of memory forming on the edges of reality, Chris’ subjects are almost tangible, yet always tantalisingly beyond formation. The result is a haunting and emotionally empathetic body of work that reinforces his reputation as one of the UK’s best emerging fine artists.

Here, Chris Moon explains why for him, the process is even more important than the outcome, and why he’s exhibiting again after years of withdrawal from the gallery scene.
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Betty Wood: Your new exhibition seems to have much more of a focus on process, and insight into how you go about constructing — and deconstructing — your artwork. In so far as you’re a self taught artist, do you find that you’re more self-conscious about your process because you learned through trial and error rather than being taught a “correct”, or formulaic way to create art?

Chris Moon:It’s more the process of the narrative and how I tell the story through paint, so the process is between the head, hand and medium. I didn’t show any work for a long time, so with trial and error came a mass diversity of subject and styles.

I also became my own worst critic, but without trial and error I would not have found new paths and techniques to tell my stories. If you want to grow [as an artist] I see no other way, so in a way I embarrassed it rather than felt self conscious. The confidence of showing is another matter, but you know when you’re ready…

Betty: Your work has earned comparison to that of Francis Bacon, and like Bacon’s, your paintings are emotionally intense, littered with haunting figures and energy-driven bursts of colour. How do you channel emotion into your work?

Chris: It’s an organic process. You can start with a clear narrative and composition,  but it’s when the clarity of this spirals out of control (be it in anger or a self induced painting depression) —  in my process when this tangent appears, I have learnt to use it, contain it. In other ways, it comes down to finding a rhythm. In this I mean a specific style to illustrate my concept, to tell the story.

Betty: On a similar note, your studio is located on Mare Street in Hackney, a thoroughfare for last summer’s riots. Given how sensitive your work is to environment, and the people around you (and that your first solo collection was entitled Home), how did the riots in Hackney affect your work?

Chris: I was living in Dalston at the time and they came straight through, so I was in the middle of it. I was working from my home and was in the middle of working on the Home show when it hit. It did resonate in my work — I was working on some contained landscapes [at the time]. In one, I added riot police on horses, in the other, [I referenced] a shop that was hit [by looters]. It had a huge sign [on it] saying “Summer Sale Now On!” Apt.

Betty: You’ve talked about moving “out of your comfort zone”  to further your work; how does your new exhibition do this? What boundaries are you pushing?

Chris: I aim to push boundaries with every piece. I constantly analyse my methods for progression and reinvention. Again, this helps [me] to find an answer to the questions I have in paint and content.
My current show Reverie aims to celebrate the medium of paint. It’s also about what shapes me as a painter, starting with the reality of the subject to the daydream.

It becomes a reinvention of the story, and in turn the reinvention of me as a painter. It’s conception, labor and reinvention. Each piece has the task of telling between head, hand and medium. Each is as important as the other.

During the period I wasn’t showing my work, a friend would come and critique my paintings from time to time, which I found both useful and destructive. She would say, “paint to your strengths”, of which I am embarrassed.

For me, the excitement happens within the void between perfection and destruction. This middle ground is where new techniques and answers can be found; its in weakness that you grow stronger, a life lesson that parallels in paint.

Betty: Going back to a point you raised earlier, you stopped exhibiting in public for quite a few years: what made you want to start showing again?

Chris: Ambition and belief. 

.Chris Moon: Reverie, curated by John-Paul Pryor runs 4 — 13 October, LONDONEWCASTLE Project Space, 
28 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP. For more information visit chrismoonart.com