Untitled 1964

This artwork by Peter Phillips is a real mash-up, isn’t it? It’s like he’s playing with anything and everything that came to hand. I’m thinking about the moment he made it, like he was in a laboratory, a kind of pop art scientist, throwing all these shapes and colours together – zaps of black lightning, red springs, a couple of robot men and this weird number ‘35’ – what could it all mean? And look at that hand, or the grey shape of a hand, reaching out from the bottom of the picture plane – there's such a cool, mechanical feel. It reminds me of what Rauschenberg was doing at the time, using whatever he found in the street, creating art out of everyday life. It's all one big conversation, these artists, riffing off each other, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways. It’s up to us to embrace the chaos and find our own meaning in it all!