Chris Avis/ Silenced

Chris Avis holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts, awarded with First Class Honors in 1994, and an MA in Art in Architecture, completed in 1996. After twelve years working as a senior manager in the arts, she returned to her studio practice in 2009. Since then, she has exhibited regularly in selected group exhibitions across the UK, Europe, and the Americas. In 2023, Avis was awarded Best Experimental Filmmaker at the Attic International Film Festival in Wales. Her solo exhibitions include Sensitive Focus (2026), Oxford House Theatre, London; Time, Dream & Reflection (2024), Artist in Residence, Compassionate Funerals, London; Voices in the Shadows (2019), Park Theatre, London; POW Thanet (2018), York Street Gallery, Ramsgate; SHE (2017), Park Theatre, London; Time Passing (2015), Park Theatre, London; Remnants of Reality (2013), Centre for the Arts, Maidenhead; and Red Lips (2010), The Outside World Gallery, London. In 2014, Avis devised and directed a Barbican Guildhall Open Lab project, which was presented at Rich Mix, London, in 2015. In 2013, she was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship, supporting six weeks of research into opportunities for older artists across Europe. Her research included interviews with artists, museum curators, and gallery owners in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Berlin.

The Pursiut of Silence

This image became the starting point for developing ideas about exploring the pursuit of silence through three distinct characters. I found the stone angel in the entrance of a church book sale. Standing 6 feet tall, she was impressive, despite her position, one of a pair of angels cluttering a church vestibule entrance at a jumble sale. I like the way she brings a gothic presence to the group. The female eye and the elderly man are both human, floating in a mask of shadow. Each character brings their own voice individually to the scene. Gradually, it became clear they represent a man, a woman, and a spiritual force.