The titles of Julia Phillips’ sculptures serve as a registry of potential actions: Manipulator, Protector, Muter, Extruder, Mediator, Negotiator, Distancer. The very names of these works, which are primarily forged in delicate flesh- coloured ceramics and bits of metal hardware, imply a phantom presence. Formally, Phillips’ sculptures maintain the suggestion of the anonymous, absent, or invisible body, which can be detected through recurring devices such as buckles, straps, wing nuts, masks, and handles. Their material, linguistic, and metaphorical arrangements produce a deeply psychological, if ambiguous, resonance for the viewer, alluding to socio-political, institutional, and inter- personal systems of power or scrutiny. Phillips’ recent suite of sculptures (all 2021–2022) shift the focus to the relationship one has with oneself. In Veiled Purifier, inwardness is manifested through the use of fabric. Veiled and posed atop a tiled base inspired by patterning in St Mark’s Basilica, the work connotes a body looking inward. Bower, too, adopts architectural elements from Venetian churches to evoke the elevated interiority of such spiritual spaces. Mounted on a stone tile pattern inspired by the 16th century church of San Giorgio Maggiore, a ceramic and brass sculpture made from the impressions of a forehead and lower back allude to the motion of bowing. The psychic experience of spirituality is extended to the body, even in its partial absence.
Madeline Weisburg
