Chris Doris; The Empty Field opened on Saturday 17 November 2018 and presented recent text-based and painting works in a unique and personally intimate gallery experience that drew on the artist’s distinctive synthesis of practices in psychotherapy, art, meditation and other forms of interception.
Expansive ‘Open Paintings’, text paintings, and works on steel and paper, evoke the empty ground of being, and the conditioned nature of self. Doris’ practical research into the nature of consciousness, being and selfhood also informs what he calls ‘inquiries’ – durational, participatory setups, often in public contexts, which import skilled processes of observation from therapy and meditation into an art context.
Songs of Being Seen was a participatory inquiry utilising spontaneous group vocalisation. The work employs skilled modes of observation derived from mindfulness, psychotherapy and interpersonal neurobiology. Members of the public are invited join in this very unique and powerful experience from 3pm by joining the group of singers at various points throughout the event.