American Artist Chris Fallon and a Human-Shaped Pillow
April 5 – 2022
Words by Mairi Beautyman
Garish colors and odd human figures with blood-red lips dominate the work of Chris Fallon. Born in New Jersey, and now residing in Los Angeles, the American artist moved to southeastern Mexico with his family at the age of nine, where formative years in the country helped shape his acrylic on wood panel paintings.
Garish colors and odd human figures with blood-red lips dominate the work of Chris Fallon. Born in New Jersey, and now residing in Los Angeles, the American artist moved to southeastern Mexico with his family at the age of nine, where formative years in the country helped shape his acrylic on wood panel paintings.
A self-taught painter, Fallon studied politics before embracing his calling. Today his work, influenced by Mexican Folk Art, American popular culture, and old Hollywood, is part of the collections of the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Here he shares what drove his customization of the 4PM Self Build chaise, with its show-stopping human-shaped pillow.
Why a human figure?
Vanity is a big theme in my work. I frequently have figures looking into mirrors and seeing their own reflection, as commentary on our culture. Something else I incorporate are black oozy parts, or dripping black things that are really shiny. To me, the physical form for vanity and insecurity is black ooze, so that’s why I made this kind of mummified humanbag-cushion. I wanted to see if I could harness that vanity that we all have and turn it into a physical thing, and that’s this figure wrapped up in black ooze.
“it’s a vinyl bag that I sewed myself with a sewing machine and filled with pillow batting. I got the vinyl – classic black like a car seat or office chair – at a fabric store. And every chair should have a cushion!”
“My chaise feels like it could be a 3D-version of one of my paintings. I painted the entire chaise with acrylic paint. “
What impression do you hope to give with your 4PM Self Build chaise?
It’s very democratic that anybody can take this piece of furniture and make it themselves, in any kind of wood they want. It’s such a blank slate in many ways. I felt the freedom to make it ridiculous and over the top – I get such a kick out of that. And I really like to have fun in my art. You can use the instructions as the launchpad and make it as simple as you want, you can leave it as wood, very beautiful and minimal. But you can also just go crazy and do whatever the hell you want.
” I use red a lot because it’s such a strong color and we have so many associations with it. Lust, blood…it’s just a powerful color that everybody has a connection with.”
How did you choose the very bold and vibrant colors for the wood panels?
I spent five years of my childhood growing up in Mexico and my family still lives there. We’re not Mexican, but my family just fell in love with the country and stayed. The colors are influenced by all the Mexican art that I was surrounded with growing up. So I knew I wanted to paint it with bright colors, because that’s just what all my paintings have – really garish bright colors. My chaise feels like it could be a 3D-version of one of my paintings. I painted the entire chaise with acrylic paint. The footrest and headrest are metallic, iridescent, shiny-gold. Really so much of the art in Mexico is religious art. When I was young, we would go to churches all the time, but not as Christians. We would go to look at the art, and of course all these saint paintings and statues have shiny gold halos around their heads. The base of the chaise is red. I use red a lot because it’s such a strong color and we have so many associations with it. Lust, blood…it’s just a powerful color that everybody has a connection with. Pink – on the two center panels – is a color always associated with femininity that I use to subvert. Most of my figures are ambiguous. I don’t think of them as having any specific gender. They’re just humans.
“You can use the instructions as the launchpad and make it as simple as you want, you can leave it as wood, very beautiful and minimal. But you can also just go crazy and do whatever the hell you want.”
The face of your cushion is very distinctive.
The figure is essentially a saint, which comes from my fascination
with religious iconography and how these figures are represented in this exalted way. In Mexico, we lived in M rida, the capital of the state of Yucatán, but I also spent a lot of time in the state of Chiapas, where my grandparents lived. There you can see that some villages have their own specific version of Catholicism – the depictions of saints are playful, but they’re also very dark, with a lot of bloody Jesus statues or Jesus carrying the cross, literally just dripping in blood. Seeing those things when I was a child really left an impression on me. I just loved it – this really morbid, but beautiful art. In my work, I depict these characters that are sort of beautiful on one level, but if you look a little closer, they have crooked teeth, they have tiny little eyes and, actually, they’re not beautiful. They’re kind of a little odd and creepy. The red lips echo the fact that nearly all of my figures have these very shiny red lips. That’s one of my trademarks. The red lips and the oozing are an embodiment of insecurities and vanity, but also dripping blood, like I would see in those churches. The particular blue-green comes from a series that I did a couple years ago called Swamp Series, where I put swamp creatures in a swampy atmosphere with strange looking plants in front of them. I do like a darker green, like Swamp Thing–green.
You mean like the plant-based superhero in the movie and comic book series?
Exactly.
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