FOR RELEASE: 2 APRIL 2003  

Exhibition dates: 2 April 2003 - 4 May 2003

It seemed appropriate at Charleston to make an exhibition with some leaning towards literature. The ghosts of writers that pass throufh these pages and images include Dante, Homer, Virgil, James Joyce, Plato and the Victorian twin to whom I've been shackled for almost 40 years, W.H. Mallock.

Guest appearances are made by Samuel Beckett and Iris Murdoch both of whom I have met and spoken to. Despite all these references and the presence of heavyweights such as Mallarmé and Wittgenstein the works are meant primarily to be looked at and I hope enjoyed.

The series of cubes exhibited here began with a cage of wire made for The Globe Theatre's production of The Winter's Tale. A cage of wire words followed to exemplify Wittgenstein's proposition 'The Limits of My Language are the Limits of My World'. Printing this on an acrylic cube where the inside can be seen and, by an oddity of optics, experienced from the outside seemed to unite the reading of a statement with its perception as a metaphor. Reversing the text on the outside in a later version emphasised the trap of language that Wittgenstein describes.

Mallarmé in "Un Coup de dès n'abolira jamais le hazard," the first line of the foundation poem of chance procedures (and concrete poetry in general), outlines another dilemma which I translate as 'A throw of dice will never do away with chance'. Each dot on these giant dice incorporates the line and through the mysteries arising from the solid geometry of a transparent cube each "throw" gives rise to new configurations as chance plays its second role.

Looked at from the sides, from the corners and from above, the cube's symmetry produces illusions and paradoxes of perception, hints of mirrors and fractures appropriate to each of these statements.

© Tom Phillips 2003

"Tom Phillips: Works on Literary Themes", is on display at the Charleston Trust, Lewes, England, from Wednesday 2 April 2003 through Sunday 4 May 2003. For directions and hours of operation, visit the CT website, or phone 01323 811265. NOTE: THIS EXHIBITION HAS CLOSED.

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