Terri Phillips

Self to Stone

September 6th – October 14th 2019

Tops Gallery is pleased to present Self to Stone, Terri Phillips’s solo exhibition with Tops and her first at the Madison Avenue Park space.

In its arrangement and use of materials, the installation Self to Stone addresses burial rituals. A plywood plank in the shape of a coffin is suspended above the ground on cinder blocks, with a viewing window carved into it at eye level, like those in Victorian glass coffins that enabled the soul to look out at the outside world. On the plank, embedded in a mound of rich red Alabama earth, is a taxidermic largemouth bass, while behind it a falling curtain signifies the end of an act. The musical accompaniment to this tableau is a version of 10cc’s I’m Not in Love performed by Phillips and Tom Kidd Watson.