Loan (Loan In)
Andrews Gallery and Maudslay Hall, 16/9/2020 to 16/02/2022, Civilisations
Event Date 16/9/2020
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Pen and wash drawing on paper, 'Faries', by Tony Philips, 2020.
Event Date 24/9/2020
Author: rachel hand

Context (Production / use)
Part of 'Civilisations' by British artist Tony Phillips, a series of graphic works, painted panels, and sculpted reliefs which link contemporary life in Britain with ethnographic collections. Through a survey of museum collections/displays at MAA, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the British Museum) Philips has developed a series of images into visual narratives linking ideas, motifs, and beliefs across the full range of human civilisations. The narratives are a mixture of motifs from museum objects, humans – both as historical participants and as contemporary museum spectators -, and the wider context of Britain in the 21st century. Decoration, ritual, hierarchy, power, myth, veneration , abound in the imagery of museum artefacts and resonate with the imagery which permeates the world of the contemporary museum visitor.

These principal themes are: patterns of similarity in the role of motifs, and their shared vitality; the nature of artefacts transformed by becoming museum objects (used , rediscovered, institutionalised); sacred and hand-crafted imagery in the context of the mass-produced imagery of the 21st century; artefacts as embellishment of life

The Museum interventions will be exhibited amongst existing MAA museum displays as fragments of sacred text where images on paper, are displayed as 'relics' of an original text, as fragments of altarpieces – painted wood panels displayed as 'relics' on walls and as 'stone' reliefs – bas-relief texts displayed as 'relics'.

The artworks were produced at the artist's home and studio in Italy
Event Date 24/9/2020
Author: rachel hand

Context (Display)
Exhibited around the walls of the Learning and Engagement Corner of the Andrews Gallery, 14 February 2022- 20 March 2023. Tony Phillips is the MAA artist in residence (2021-2022) as part of the the project TAKING CARE - Ethnographic and World Cultures Museums as Spaces of Care (1 October 2019- 2023).

Phillips' works are exhibited amongst existing MAA displays, linking contemporary life with ethnographic collections. Tony Phillips has long been fascinated by museum displays, which are full of artefacts associated with myth, power and ritual. Many of these artefacts are sacred. Through drawings, prints and interventions around the Museum's galleries, he brings together historic treasures with consumer culture and objects such as smartphones, asking about the connections between collections and contemporary life.

Event Date 14/2/2022
Author: rachel hand