Paulette Phillips facts for kids
Paulette Phillips (born in 1956) is a Canadian artist. She lives and works in Toronto. Paulette was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She creates art that makes you think, using things like film, video, sculptures, photos, and live performances.
Paulette is also a professor at the Ontario College of Art & Design University. She has taught art classes there since 1986. She studied at York University and the Canadian Film Centre. Later, she even became a trained lie detector (polygraph) examiner in 2009! Her art is shown in galleries like Diaz Contemporary in Toronto and Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art in London.
Art That Makes You Think
Paulette Phillips' art often explores how people see things and how we judge others. She is interested in how our feelings and thoughts are connected to the world around us. She likes to show the surprising or tricky parts of life. Paulette once said she is interested in "paradox and conflict, unease, humour and contradiction." This means she likes to explore ideas that seem opposite or a bit strange.
Her art often makes viewers think deeply. For example, in her video It's About How People Judge Appearance (2000), a well-dressed woman repeatedly bangs her head against a brick wall. This might make you feel uncomfortable and wonder why she is doing it.
Another famous piece is The Floating House (2002). This video shows a small, old-fashioned house slowly sinking into the ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia. It's now part of the National Gallery of Canada's collection.
Since 2009, Paulette has been doing something really unique. She uses her lie detector training to test people from the art world. She asks them questions about honesty. This project explores how we show ourselves and how we can truly know someone.
Buildings and Art
Paulette also uses famous buildings in her art. For an event called Nuit Blanche in Toronto, she created As Could Be (2009). This artwork projected a 3D video of a famous building design, Tatlin's Tower, onto smoke! A soundtrack of people talking about work played along with it.
In Touché (2008), she put two special books in a metal cage. The books were magnetized, so one floated above the other, pushed away by its energy. This artwork showed a disagreement between two famous designers, Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray.
Her film Shell (2008) is about a famous house called E.1027, built by Eileen Gray. The film suggests a link between homes and mysterious feelings.
Paulette has also worked with fashion. For London Fashion Week, she made Marnie's Handbag (2008). This 10-minute video about fashion in old detective movies (film noir) was shown at the Tate Modern museum.
In 2008, she created an art piece called The Walking Ferns for the Tatton Park Biennale. This artwork featured robotic ferns that actually walked around in a garden!
Paulette also helps other artists. In 2003, she won an award for a project called Do The Wrong Thing. This project showed the work of artists like Eija-Liisa Ahtila and Miranda July.
Early Art Journey
In the 1980s, Paulette Phillips started her career making films, videos, and performances. She directed a video called Work (1989) with Geoffrey Shea. It had music by the band Fifth Column.
In 1984, Paulette helped start a group called United Media Arts Studies (UMAS). This group even published a video magazine called Diderot. Her film Lockjaw (1992) is about how we understand our minds and feelings. You can find it in many university libraries across Canada.
In the 1990s, Paulette also worked in theatre. She wrote and directed plays like Under the Influence (1992) and Controlling Interest (1995). She even won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her acting in a play called Lorca Play. She shared this award with other talented actresses like Tracy Wright and Valerie Buhagiar.
