Ciara Phillips. What we recognise in others

About

The exhibition is her first solo presentation in the UK and Ireland since her nomination for the Turner Prize in 2014.

Ciara Phillips’ practice is centred on printmaking and its various processes and collaborations. For her exhibition at CCA, Phillips will present new works that have been developed from photographs taken of the artist’s friends in their places of work. These photographs have been screenprinted onto fabric and applied with layers of colour and text that variously mask areas of the image; the works moving between abstraction and representation, elusion and recognition.  This approach also extends outwardly from individual works to the exhibition space itself, with wall painting and additional fabric and paper works creating an immersive and layered environment.

Although the works are not directly motivated by the politics of labour, they do reflect Phillips’ interest in the way that, for many creative workers, the private and public realm are becoming increasingly indistinguishable.

In previous projects, Phillips has worked collaboratively with other artists, designers, community and campaign groups in the production of works; an approach that is connected to the long- standing history of screen-printing as a tool for social and political activism. While Phillips often utilises the potential of printmaking as a medium of repetition, reproduction, and wide distribution, What we recognise in others goes further to emphasise the human and gestural relationships that inhabit these processes.