Becoming (the Hunter, the Twerker, the Submitter)

The human body is a principal subject of Julia Phillips sculptures, drawings, prints, and videos. And the body is at the heart of Phillips’ Becoming (the Hunter, the Twerker, the Submitter), originally a single channel video installation piece. A silent 1-minute 36-second performance video looped for our extended consideration, the black and while piece deploys text-on-screen while featuring a black female body (maybe two performers but only one at a time in the frame) whose face we barely glimpse, dressed in dark performance pants and shirt. Interspersed with shots of twerking moments, she shapes clay into sexually suggestive objects, mangles it, and chews it, all occurring in a minimalist set, stark yet softly lit.