On the Cover: Joseph Phillips
Joseph Phillips’ architecturally-driven art isolates chunks of life and highlights their most basic elements, exposing the naked truth beneath our developing world.
Phillips’ unzipped images of the Western world show layers of development, from conception to completion. He makes landmasses comprehensible by showing interior cross-sections of the natural and the artificial—and the ways in which these materials complement and interact with one another. Phillips’ simplified versions of reality act as a balance to the larger theme of serious environmental concerns present within his art.
But the Austinite’s dissection of concrete culture did not come from an engineering background. Rather,
Phillips’ primary attraction to this theme evolved from an interest in the way people use land, how different areas develop, and how the whole affects our interaction with communities.
“[This interest] is about ownership, he explains. “It’s the idea of owning something that is connected to
everything else.”
Phillips pokes fun at humans’ inherent need to “clean things up.” He says that nature is—and should be—fairly chaotic and varied; however, we’ve managed to create a world that is orderly and familiar. “We’re scared of accidents and things that don’t fit,” he says.
All of the diagrammatic cutaways float on a neutral background, allowing the slices of land to stand alone for inspection. “Everything is split open for you to study and laugh at,” Phillips says. He describes the initial concept for his art as an “Ikea-type” situation, where he’s able to create a perfect world with a variety of pre-fab materials.
To capture this generic, plastic feel, Phillips uses a limited palette. Each piece begins as a series of sketches layered over one another. Using gouache, an appropriately commercial yet ancient medium, Phillips then adds color and goes back to draw one final layer with pencil or ink.
Surprisingly, the finished product is nearly identical to the initial sketch, but the subtle changes are fundamental steps in an altogether mechanical and methodical process.
“I feel it’s an honest approach for dealing with my subject matter in that it mirrors the systematic way we develop our surroundings,” Phillips explains.
Phillips wants his work to inspire a path of introspection, and his dissections offer a brightly lit trail. He sees this series as more of a light-hearted critique rather than a serious judgment call on our way of life or globalization, and he hopes that it will serve as a comfortable jumping-off point for people interested in reality. “I want it to be reassuring, simple, and easy,” he says.
Joseph Phillips is Co-founder of the non-profit Big Medium, Co-organizer of the Texas Biennial, Co-organizer of East Austin Studio Tour, and member of three-person artist collaborative, sodalitas.
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Very clever!