Phil Collins (artist)

:"For other uses, see: Phil Collins (disambiguation)".

Philip "Phil" Collins (born 1970) is an English artist, and Turner prize nominee.

Life and work

Collins was born in Runcorn, England. He lived and worked in Belfast, until moving to Belgrade. He now lives in Glasgow.

He was nominated for the 2006 Turner Prize for solo shows at Milton Keynes Gallery, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, and also for his work in the British Art Show 6. The Tate Gallery describes his work as "engaging photographic and video installations involving diverse social groups. Acting as a catalyst, he encourages people to reveal their individuality, making the personal public with sensitivity and generosity."

For the 2006 Frieze Show in London, a £33-million art fair, Collins created a fully-functioning 'Shady Lane Productions' office and did 9am-5pm office work in it for the duration of the show, with the room open to passing visitors. The office workers are said to be making "Return Of The Real", a documentary about people whose lives have been ruined by reality TV. Turner Prize judge Andrew Renton said, "To call Phil Collins a prankster would be to underestimate the seriousness of his work. His work is clearly political and connected to social engagement." [Teodorczuk, Tom (2006). "Is this an ID parade? No it's the Turner Prize of, course", "Evening Standard", May 16, 2006]

His best-known works are video art, often featuring teenagers. In 2002 he travelled to Saddam Hussein's Baghdad, before the start of the Iraq war, and filmed Iraqis sitting silently for screen tests for a non-existent Hollywood movie ("Baghdad Screen Tests", 2002). His best known work is "They Shoot Horses" (2004) consisting of two videos each lasting seven hours and shown at the same time on different walls. This is a record of a disco dance marathon staged by the artist with nine Palestinians in Ramallah. Music from the last three decades is played and the young people are captured in a single camera take, as they dance or, at times, stand round or slump to the floor. Another similar work was "The World Won't Listen" (2005), which features young people in Turkey, Colombia, and Indonesia performing karaoke versions of Smiths songs. [ [http://dallasmuseumofart.org/Dallas_Museum_of_Art/View/Future_Exhibitions/ID_190509 "Dallas Museum of Art -- Phil Collins: the world won’t listen"] . Retrieved January 20, 2008.]

ee also

*Video art

Contributions

2008 "Life on Mars," the 2008 "Carnegie International" [http://blog.cmoa.org/CI08/2008/02/phil-collins.php]

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/ Turner Prize 2006, Tate press release]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/articles/2005/04/04/mkg_phil_collins_exhibition_feature.shtml Phil Collins BBC Online article]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=84308&searchid=11077 Images from "They Shoot Horses"]
* [http://www.friezeartfair.com/biographies/Phil_Collins.htm Phil Collins at Frieze Art Fair, London 2006]
* [http://www.kerlin.ie/artists/philcollins.html Artist images and biography at Kerlin Gallery]
* [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/03/19/070319fa_fact_thornton New Yorker article on the Turner Prize competition with Phil Collins, Tomma Abts, Rebecca Warren, and Mark Titchner.]