Phillip Shore
Telling Stories: Sculptural Works
(curated by Julie Shipp)
Arts Gallery at Collin College, Plano, Texas [link]
Philip Shore employs a reverential hand when constructing these pieces, most evident in his careful carving of hardwoods. The works are emblematic tribute to human and plant symbiosis.
Celebrating nature’s own tenacious defense mechanisms, Shore creates expansive patterns from masses of individually harvested and attached pinecone scales that are simultaneously seductive and threatening. Shapes curve toward, lean upon, and touch each other, as if in an undisturbed bosco.
Like foliate pillars of an unfamiliar but ancient culture, the associated forms imply societal memory, encouraging viewers to consider their own relationship with nature’s infinite tonality, structural precision, and sacrificial materiality.
~ Thomas Motley
images courtesy of the artist and Kevin Todora
