Debra Phillips, A talker’s echo — 6 May to 17 June 2023
Debra Phillips
A talker’s echo
A talker’s echo
6 May — 17 June 2023
Opening Saturday 6 May, 3 pm
With guest speaker James Gatt, independent curator
Curated by Jasmin Stephens
Conversation: A talker’s echo
Saturday 17 June at 3pm
James Gatt and Keith Munro join exhibiting artist Debra Phillips and curator Jasmin Stephens to explore the continuum of ideas evoked by the public artwork Viva Voce.
A talker’s echo is a new work that emerges from the material remnants of Viva Voce, the public artwork made by Debra Phillips in 1999. Viva Voce was located on Gadigal Land in Sydney’s Domain until its deaccessioning and removal in 2019. Commissioned for the City of Sydney Sculpture Walk, it was created to acknowledge Speakers’ Corner as a site for public oratory and debate. With the addition of new elements, A talker’s echo provides a further platform for the exchange of ideas engendered by the original work. Evoking vernacular and municipal histories associated with Viva Voce’s creation and disappearance, the exhibition highlights a complex public entanglement of perspectives on history, memory, conflict, politics and sovereignty played out within civic space.
Debra Phillips is represented by KRONENBERG MAIS WRIGHT, Sydney.
Debra Phillips’ Exhibition Notes > Download as pdf
James Gatt’s Opening Remarks > Download as pdf
Debra Phillips, A talker’s echo, The Cross Art Projects, 2023. Installation view. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, Nuclear Disarmament Rally at the Domain, Sydney, 1984/2023, dye sublimation print on aluminium, 60 x 82 cm
Banner image: Debra Phillips, production image for A talker’s echo, 2021
Debra Phillips, A talker’s echo, The Cross Art Projects, 2023. Installation view. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, Two ladders, 1999/2023, stainless steel and wood variable dimensions. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, Webster’s ashes, 2023, dye sublimation print on aluminium, 29.7 x 42 cm. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, A talker’s echo, The Cross Art Projects, 2023. Installation view. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, Marble fragments retrieved from the public artwork ‘Viva Voce’ 1999-2019, 2023, Bianco Carrara marble, variable dimensions. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, Medallion, 2023, silver-plated copper, marble fragment 40 mm diameter. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, A talker’s echo, The Cross Art Projects, 2023. Installation view. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, A talker’s echo, The Cross Art Projects, 2023. Installation view. Photo: Silversalt.
Centre: Debra Phillips, Forest Red Gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis) The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, 2008/2023, silver gelatin print, selenium toned, 100 x 80 cm (frame). Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, Five soapbox models, 1998, acrylic, variable dimensions. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, Five soapbox models, 1998, acrylic, variable dimensions. Photo: Silversalt. (Detail).
Debra Phillips, Marble fragments retrieved from the public artwork ‘Viva Voce’ 1999-2019, 2023, Bianco Carrara marble, variable dimensions. Photo: Silversalt.
Debra Phillips, A talker’s echo, The Cross Art Projects, 2023. Installation view. Photo: Silversalt.
Background: Debra Phillips, Bamboo graffiti, The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, 2008/2023, silver gelatin print, selenium toned 90 x 72 cm (frame). Photo: Silversalt.
About Debra Phillips
Debra Phillips pursues ideas through a range of representational forms, producing photographs, objects and printed matter (including books, prints and newspapers). Interested in systems of knowledge and their intersection with daily life, since the early 1980s she has explored public and private archives to generate questions around history-making, economics, geography and politics. Her photographic work draws on different genres. Using analogue and digital materials and processes, she often draws attention to the indexical limits of the medium. In doing so, Phillips suggests that a photograph should not only be perceived as a complete object in itself, but also as part of an associative field of relationships between photographs. Her wider practice sources negatives and digital files from her own broad collection dating from the late 1970s, so highlighting two critical moments in production: when photographs are captured and when they enter public circulation.
Debra Phillips pursues ideas through a range of representational forms, producing photographs, objects and printed matter (including books, prints and newspapers). Interested in systems of knowledge and their intersection with daily life, since the early 1980s she has explored public and private archives to generate questions around history-making, economics, geography and politics. Her photographic work draws on different genres. Using analogue and digital materials and processes, she often draws attention to the indexical limits of the medium. In doing so, Phillips suggests that a photograph should not only be perceived as a complete object in itself, but also as part of an associative field of relationships between photographs. Her wider practice sources negatives and digital files from her own broad collection dating from the late 1970s, so highlighting two critical moments in production: when photographs are captured and when they enter public circulation.
About James Gatt
James Gatt is an independent curator and Founding Editor of the dialogical texts journal Kafay Larday. He was previously Associate Director at Sarah Cottier Gallery (2016–2022), and Founding Director of the residency and project space Squiggle Space (2015–2017). In 2022, he curated Elizabeth Pulie’s 30-year survey exhibition at UNSW Galleries, Sydney, and is currently working on Daniel Mudie Cunningham’s 30-year survey exhibition for Wollongong Art Gallery, which opens in July.
James Gatt is an independent curator and Founding Editor of the dialogical texts journal Kafay Larday. He was previously Associate Director at Sarah Cottier Gallery (2016–2022), and Founding Director of the residency and project space Squiggle Space (2015–2017). In 2022, he curated Elizabeth Pulie’s 30-year survey exhibition at UNSW Galleries, Sydney, and is currently working on Daniel Mudie Cunningham’s 30-year survey exhibition for Wollongong Art Gallery, which opens in July.
Acknowledgements
Jasmin Stephens; The Cross Art Projects: Jo Holder, Belle Blau & Phillip Boulten; Blair French; Ethan French; James Gatt; Reverend Bill Crews; Julian Bickersteth, International Conservation Services; Royal Australian Mint; and the late Sally Couacaud (Curator of the Sydney Sculpture Walk).
Jasmin Stephens; The Cross Art Projects: Jo Holder, Belle Blau & Phillip Boulten; Blair French; Ethan French; James Gatt; Reverend Bill Crews; Julian Bickersteth, International Conservation Services; Royal Australian Mint; and the late Sally Couacaud (Curator of the Sydney Sculpture Walk).
We recognise the unceded land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation within which we live and create. We pay respects to the traditional custodians, promising to listen and learn.