Phil Collins

Relating to performance-based and conceptual approaches to video and photography, the art of Phil Collins investigates the nuances of social relations in various locations and global communities. Collins employs elements of popular culture, and sometimes operates within forms of low-budget television and reportage-style documenta ry to address the camera as an instrument of both truth and deception. In recent years he has worked in regions of social or political unrest, in cities such as Baghdad, Belgrade, Bogotá, and, most recently, Jakarta. Investigating the inherent problems of representation within different media, Collins repeatedly underlines the complex and unpredictable transferences that occur between the producer, the participant, and the viewer. The specific character of Collins' practice comes from its volatile, shape-shifting nature. Manifest ing itself as a disco dance marathon, karaoke party, film casting, talk-show confessional or an intimate photographic session, his work is equal parts video, photography, performance and live event without exclusively adhering to any one in particular. For Collins, such indeterminacy is a condition of the precarious creative process by which representation is constructed, particularly in the participatory and collaborative situations that his work is frequently associated with. Collins was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2006. Born 1970 Run corn, currently based in Glasgow. Source: Victoria Miro, London)