Ciara Phillips

Calculated Risk

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About this artwork

In this series of works, made for an exhibition at Glasgow Print Studio titled Show Me Your Glow (2018), Phillips worked in an improvised way over a period of several months, moving back and forth between various printmaking processes with the assistance of Ian McNicol, Master Printer. Underpinning these works are thoughts about absorption, touch and connection which Phillips explores largely through analogue means, but often in reference to the digital. This is one of several artworks by Phillips in which she uses her own hand to hold up, present, demonstrate, or signal to the viewer. A single toothpick pinched between her forefinger and little finger, transmits an ambiguous signal. The title, Calculated Risk, points towards the familiar concept of assessing risk on the basis of knowledge and/or experience that runs throughout our lives on macro and micro levels. Phillips considers this in light of several recent questions posed by the American author Marge Piercy in a new introduction to her 1976 novel Woman on the Edge of Time, 'Who sets the rules for what is dangerous and what is acceptable risk? For whose benefit are options explored? Who decides what is done and whom it is done to? Who chooses which technology is explored?'

Updated November 2021

  • artist:
  • title:
    Calculated Risk
  • date created:
    2018
  • materials:
    Woodcut and screenprint on paper
  • measurements:
    153.00 x 102.00 cm (base size); 167.70 x 115.80 x 7.20 cm (framed size)
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Purchased with the Iain Paul Fund 2019
  • accession number:
    GMA 5631
  • gallery:
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Ciara Phillips

Ciara Phillips