photos: Chris Phillips.
Some might know Chris Phillips as the co-founder of the art collective Pornceptual and co-founder of the queer festival WHOLE. But in addition to leading these groundbreaking projects, this Brazilian ex-pat is a prolific artist himself. Starting on February 22nd, you can see his newest photography work at The Ballery.
The exhibition, simply entitled “Twins”, is curated by Chris together with his twin brother Eric. The collected artwork aims to answer the question: How do twins view twinship?
“Twins by Twins explores the incomparable bond formed from sharing a womb and how this connection shapes the lived experience of the twin artist. The closeness that twins experience often gives them a particular perspective on life: balancing a special connection and external similarities with the desire to develop a distinct identity. This tension between sameness and uniqueness has the potential to both bring them together and tear them apart,” describe the makers of the gallery.
The idea for the exhibition was suggested to Chris by The Ballery’s curator, Simon Williams. In an interview with Williams, Phillips said: “My work has always been very focused on eroticism and nakedness, so I was intrigued about working with a theme that wasn’t sex-related this time. When you are a twin, you can’t really escape this subject. People are easily fascinated by it and they have a series of weird questions that they ask you all the time. So, before every shoot, I was asking all the twins what questions they get asked often annoyed them the most. I would then ask them what their special connection is. This was setting the mood of the shoot.”
Phillip’s creative process promises a one-of-a-kind experience while visiting the exhibition: “My goal is to present a more experimental process, so I’m working with different materials including fabric and resin. So instead of only framing photos on a white wall, I’m exploring the concept of photos as sculptures. Since the process is quite experimental, I can’t re-create some of the images more than once.”
After the opening on February 22nd, you can see the exhibition at The Ballery from Monday to Saturday, from 13:00 to 18:00, or by appointment.
