Fionn Wilson

I’m delighted that two of my paintings (The Void (2014) and Landscape (shadows fall) (2021)) are now part of the public collection of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. They’ll soon be on permanent display at Lucas House in Edmonton, Enfield.

Having paintings in public collections means a lot to me. It means the work will be looked after for posterity and also that someone considers it interesting enough to acquire for the benefit of the general public. I’m a socialist and I think donating work to public collections is a socialist thing to do. I’m also really happy to have presence in public collections in a very local way – in the pub down the road in Palmers Green, at the museum in Enfield and in an NHS Trust building in Edmonton.

The Void

Pascal had his Void that went with him day and night.
– Alas! It’s all Abyss, – action, longing, dream,
the Word! And I feel Panic’s storm-wind stream
through my hair, and make it stand upright.
Above, below, around, the desert, the deep,
the silence, the fearful compelling spaces…
With his knowing hand, in my dark, God traces
a multi-formed nightmare without release.
I fear sleep as one fears a deep hole,
full of vague terror. Where to, who knows?
I see only infinity at every window,
and my spirit haunted by vertigo’s stress
envies the stillness of Nothingness.
– Ah! Never to escape from Being and Number!

Charles Baudelaire

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