Julia Phillips: Inside, Before They Speak

For her first institutional solo exhibition in the UK, the multidisciplinary artist presents new works which draw from her interest in the body, conception, and human connection. Julia Phillips uses sculpture and drawing to give shape to intangible concepts, from psychological states and biological processes to human bonds and attachments. Her sculptures merge the anatomical and the industrial. Glazed ceramic fragments, pressed and moulded against her own body, are placed in conversation with fabricated metal elements, held together by hardware such as clasps, wingnuts and springs. Where these mechanisms appear, questions arise. Who is holding on? Who is being held? Are they inching closer? Or pulling further apart?