[no title: p. 124] 1970

Curator: This intriguing page, simply titled "[no title: p. 124]" is an altered book page by Esq Tom Phillips. I'm immediately struck by the color blocking – these salmon-colored shapes creating positive and negative space. Editor: My initial reaction is disorientation. Fragments of text emerge from the background, creating a kind of visual poem that feels fragmented, almost like a disrupted narrative. Curator: Exactly. Phillips has carefully chosen which words to reveal, creating a new composition from an existing text. Note how vertical and horizontal lines structure it. Editor: It feels like a commentary on the act of reading itself, drawing attention to how we construct meaning from partial information, filtering out noise to find coherence. The yearning for "an object for love" stands out. Curator: The materiality is also key. This is a photograph of a printed page, a flat plane where the selected text becomes the subject. Editor: Yet, through that selection, Phillips evokes themes of identity, loss, and the search for meaning in art and life. "Moon I myself am"--a powerfully intimate statement. Curator: Indeed, the artist's intervention highlights the inherent ambiguity of language. Editor: An ambiguity which perhaps invites us to reconsider how we engage with both text and image. Curator: A potent reminder that meaning is constructed, not simply received. Editor: Very well said.