“The most important parts of a film, are the mysterious parts—beyond the reach of reason and language”
– Stanley Kubrick 1975

‘If humans are the ego, Animals are the Id’ – Furr

‘Do not ask who I am and do not ask me to remain the same’ – Foucault

‘I love the cooing of the wood pigeon
But hate the dripping of the tap
Is there a world of difference between the domsticated beast
and the savage wild cat?’ – Furr

Wildlife. Both animal works started with experiences. In the winter mornings I would come downstairs and my silver tabby cat ‘Chunky’ would be waiting outside the glass door to the garden. One of my favourite books is ‘Wuthering Heights’ – Cathy at the window. It would still be pitch black and he would be waiting patiently, for me to be fed looking at me, slightly malevolently with all the mysticism of a cat from Egyptian times. I measured the window of the door and this became the dimensions for the canvas which would become the ‘portal’ for all the works.

‘Free as a bird – I saw the Truth’ was inspired by a very clear dream I had. A white owl appeared to me on a branch and fixed me with it’s gaze. A gaze I couldn’t ignore. It’s wing constantly changed with  a mryiad of colours. To me it was like a symbol of ultimate truth and  Freedom. There is an element of revelation in the viewing of these paintings perhaps in that many people don’t notice the cat until their eye falls upon it at the bottom of the compostion. In some respects they are like totem animals.

Both these paintings are possibly about the gaze or the look and ‘Das Nichts’.

‘If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.’– William Blake

The black rectangle is a void, a hallowed space, a barrier, a zone ‘beyond the register of naming’ a place that can’t be represented. It could be partly inspired by the obelisk or an appropriation of the Black Square of Malevich. It could be an attempt by me at making the abstract and the figurative cohabit a space. A soul in a void.

‘In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors. ‘– William Blake

I wanted the surface of the painting to be like the barrier between two worlds and the paintings to have an ancient ‘presence’. The cat that gazes at me – ‘Dweller on the Threshold’ the title is taken from the theosophical concept. The owl that fixes it’s eyes on me. They are sort of exorcism paintings for me.

The black is ‘Das Nichts’ or the Universe ‘built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect.’ – Paul Valery

Examples of ‘On the Threshold – Diamond edition are viewable in the permanent collection of the Hotel Cafe Royal London and 45 Park Lane London -Dorchester Collection permanent collection.

– Christian Furr 2015