A large concrete cylinder heavily rests, the hint of soot brimming from the inner edges; a collection of kitchen pans tied loosely together by a coloured string hang against a pile of cloth; a commonplace plastic bowl unexpectedly appears on the wall, grains of rice resting at the base. Phillip Lai approaches objects in a manner that appeals to, and reflects on, their intrinsic existence and properties. Observing that in one’s daily encounters with ‘things’ there is both a physical projection and an assumptive perception, Lai creates scenarios that draw objects away from these two conditions towards a state of autonomy. Through careful, delicate compositions that place the object in plain sight, Lai creates moments that lull you into a line of thinking only to then flip that original thought and allow room for another.
Intrinsic to Lai’s practice is the notion of getting to the heart of the object: what it is, how it is created, how it is perceived, what kind of value we’ve been tuned to assign to it. Through a systematic process of observation and identification Lai tends to extract the object from its societal context, a construction rooted on our impulse to categorise in order to understand and use. Consider for example ‘The thing of it’ (2014) composed of tyre strips arranged in an aluminium basin; each item is individually identifiable yet, in their collectively presented mode a form of sculptural abstraction is created, which lends a different classification and awarding of value. In a sense, one may draw a parallel with Jacques Derrida’s notion of ‘deconstruction’, which as described in ‘Of Grammatology’ and subsequently ‘Positions’ defies categorisation and the placement of hierarchy. Rather than distilling to a ‘truth’, Lai’s approach to the object is akin to the process of questioning, untangling our presumptions.

London

Kuala Lumpur

Modern Art

Hong Kong

Kiang Malingue

Turin

Galleria Franco Noero

Pistoia

Spazioa Gallery

The Agency

Nottingham

Nottingham Contemporary

Tate Modern

Saatchi Gallery

The Showroom

Drawing Room

Glasgow

Tramway

Hayward Gallery

New York City

MoMA

Gasworks

ICA London

Birmingham

Ikon Gallery

Goldsmiths CCA

Phillip Lai

University Of The Arts London, Chelsea College Of Art

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The thing of it

Untitled

Untitled (inside bell) 