Debra Phillips (AU)

Working primarily with photography, Debra Phillips’ practice focuses on systems of knowledge and understanding. Phillips often presents her exhibitions as multi-part components that emphasise the associative relationship of one photograph to another and the way in which photography—its structures of representation, convention and classification—records the real world. Phillips’ The Good. The Just. The Beautiful. series extends her ongoing interest in philosophical questions around absolutes and their fragile relationship to material objects, representation and everyday life. The works emerged from a visit to the National Metrology Institute of Germany to observe the processes of manufacture involved in the production of a perfect silicon sphere as part of the international Avogadro Project, which aimed to determine a new standard definition for the kilogram based on data instead of on a physical object. Phillips has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas. She is represented in national, international and private collections.