maria phillips

The nature of life is one of my central concerns; my initial interest being the entropic process and intersection of the botanical, anatomical and industrial worlds. Like most cycles, this body of work found itself nearing an end, in effect a beginning. A genesis, literally and figuratively, a blank slate, a zygote, the process of unfolding into an object.  

Drawing from such sources as ontogeny and developmental biology, I chose to examine the developmental history of an object through the format of portraiture. I visually scripted the evolution of an object by imagining and mimicking the process by which a cell elongates, inverts, bends and molds into elaborate shapes. Organic, discarded and precious materials mingle with intimate gestures and contemplative domestic techniques as a means of creating image and form.  It is through the process of abstraction and embellishment that layers of association are exposed.

The wearable objects in the Portrait Series, find the body as site, source, and field of experience. 

Gut, steel, sterling silver
5” x 4” x .5”

Gut, sterling silver
3.75” x 3.75” X .5

Gut, steel, thread, sterling silver
3.75” x 3.75” X .75

Gut, steel, thread, sterling silver
3.75” x 3.75” X .75

Gut, thread, sterling silver
3.75” x 3.75” X .75

Gut, plastic, pollen, sterling silver
5.5” X 3.5” X .75”

Gut, steel, thread, sterling silver
3.75” x 2.75” x 1.5”

Electroformed copper, enamel, steel, thread, sterling silver
3.25” x 1.5” x 1.25”

Collagen casing, thread, steel, sterling silver
6” x 4.5” x 2”

Gut, thread, sterling silver
6.5” x 4.5” x .5”