Philip Lee

Live performance with clay
29 September 2009
At the opening of Corpus

Corpus was a group show,
organised by HRL Contemporary,
at The Old Chapel
St. John's Wood
London

The exhibition included an installation of twenty-one ceramic
torsos entitledSlab Torsos IV

Performance

During the opening of Corpus, Philip Lee performed Corpus Slip I. In a room on an upper floor of the venue, Philip Lee's naked body was covered in white clay slip by Tony Moody, who then threw dry china clay powder randomly over the layer of slip. Philip Lee walked through the venue, a disused chapel, to the main exhibition space to stand in front of his own installation of ceramic torsos. Then he walked purposefully, and in a loop, through the audience, returning from time to time to stand in a central position. The performance ended as Philip Lee left the main exhibition space to return to the upper floor room for the clay to be removed

Installation

In the main gallery of The Old Chapel, St. John's Wood, Philip Lee installed twenty-one ceramic torsos for an installation entitled Slab Torsos IV. To make these, Philip Lee covered men's and women's bodies in mars violet pigment and slip, which they then printed onto sheets of clay. The printed clay sheets were later manipulated, without altering the detailed prints, so as to reverse the indentations made by the chest, nipples, genitals and so on. Some of the Slab Torsos were suspended from a scaffolding frame with steel cables, some leant against the wall or scaffolding, fixed by more steel cable, and others were fixed to black-painted steel stands.