Canto XX: [no title] 1982

Curator: Tom Phillips’ “Canto XX” is a bit of a puzzle, isn't it? A dense, layered visual world. Editor: My first thought is tarot cards shuffled in a dream—the cosmos colliding with the terrestrial, and a distinct sense of unease, even doom. Curator: Phillips created this piece without a specific date, and it’s held in the Tate Collections. The work is an etching, a medium that lends itself to this kind of intricate layering and cross-hatching. Editor: Yes, the symbols are fighting for dominance here. The celestial orbs, the geometric shapes, even that lone diagonal line cutting through…it’s a visual cacophony of potential meanings. I wonder, what do you make of the text fragment at the bottom? Curator: It whispers of "prophets" and "coming back to lands," almost a refrain—a hint of cyclical narratives, or maybe a personal mythology Phillips was developing. Editor: Perhaps it speaks to a deeper cultural anxiety about history repeating itself, about our inescapable past. It invites us to decipher, to project our own interpretations onto this chaotic, yet strangely compelling, vision. Curator: Absolutely. It's as if Phillips is inviting us to get lost, and maybe find something of ourselves in the process. Editor: I'm left feeling unsettled but also strangely empowered, as if I've glimpsed something ancient and still relevant.