Liquid Architecture Award.
ECHO is an immersive installation of reflection and revealing. Named for the Oread, one’s reflection is infinitely duplicated and fractured upon entering the work, as they are simultaneously aware of invisible onlookers who can see clearly through its walls. This creates a powerful imbalance between the watchers and the watched that I endeavour to capture throughout my practice.
Light is reflected, scattered, interrupted, and absorbed in perpetuity, just as perceptions of self and other are when confronted with the fragility between their distinction. Barriers erected, their walls invisible yet confining, as bodies move through the space they dictate, their permeability risks exposure.
The abject quality of the moving figure reestablishes a connection with the body, eliciting real, visceral reactions, forcing the viewer to decide if they want to lean in or repel themselves. The ‘alien’ bodies exude a strange familiarity, a body part that can’t be placed or a movement almost resembling a daily ritual, confronting notions of the ‘other’ body.
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Jessica Phillips, 'ECHO', 2023
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Other 2023 Work
Jessica Phillips (she/they) is a conceptual artist based in Naarm, Melbourne. Their installation practice focuses on themes of perception, abjection, and surveillance. They examine the relationship of the body to its barriers both internal and external, in the context of her research on surveillance capitalism. She uses video projection, sculpture, and performance in her artworks, and considers her practice to be rooted in installation-based methodology.
instagram: @_jaepeggy_