Phoebe Collings-James

Phoebe Collings-James is an artist.

Taken from the 2009 exhibition 'Beyond Existence': 'I want people to experience something new when they encounter my work. The idea is to create, challenge or stir up emotions and physical reactions in the hope of making people more aware of themselves and what it means to be human. Working in a world that is constantly attempting to disembody us I feel compelled to make work that asks the viewer to acknowledge body and spirit as a whole. Cartesian ideas of dualism separate the mind and body reducing the latter to something base, while championing intellect. This kind of separation is dangerous, individually the body and mind are susceptible to being objectified and manipulated. Visual pleasure, disgust and sexuality are an important part of getting this message across, As well as looking at both metaphysical and physical bodily expulsions.

In January this year I showed ‘windows to the soul’ at CosmicMegaBrain’s Man Power exhibition. The Internet was the visual starting point for this work and the ease to which I was able to access images from medical and pornographic resources was remarkable but not surprising. There were dramatic differences in the images I gathered some sterile, waxed, bleached and others more ‘realistic’, come-filled, hairy and stretched. While some could be considered to be very sexually arousing others were distinctly grotesque. I am interested in how we attribute visual pleasure to one thing and not another and the ways in which our visual pleasure can be manipulated. Why shouldn’t we derive the same delight from looking at an anus as at an eye? After all, the anus is far superior without it we would not be alive. We should be excited to witness such a wonder of a membrane!'

photo by Tyrone Lebon.