Canto I: [no title] 1981

Editor: This is Esq Tom Phillips' "Canto I," housed here at the Tate. It looks like a page torn from a medieval manuscript, all strange text and regal portraits. The mood feels both ancient and somehow playful. What do you see in this piece? Curator: It's a fascinating collage, isn't it? The text, echoing illuminated manuscripts, blends with what looks like cut-out images, maybe from magazines. It’s as if Phillips is trying to collapse time, juxtaposing the sacred and the mundane. Perhaps he’s asking us to find the divine in the everyday? What do you think? Editor: That's a cool perspective! I was so caught up in the historical references, I didn't consider the modern elements. Curator: Exactly! It is a playful dialogue between then and now.