Great Britain
Phil Vickery´s work conceptualises the natural power behind thought. Employing abstract forms to investigate the duality between conscious decision making and the subconscious. The mind acts in a segmented way. Phil Vickery uses molten glass and cold-working to show this orderly fracture. Each segment of the sculpture acts as a metaphorical building block or thought, but viewing the sculpture as a deconstructed whole infers the disrupted flow between thought and actuation.
The colours and forms in his work represent various emotional states of mind, or the subconscious. The sculptures reflect the inner workings of Phil Vickery´s conscious, subconscious, and the flowing energy that can be considered thought. If information is power, then why can’t thought be considered pure energy? He strives to visualise this idea with his own form of symbolism and represent in particular his ‘Thoughts’ and ‘Dreams' through sculpture.
Phil Vickery has perfected a technique where an internal membrane of glass is twisted along the length of the piece in a fluid manner. The technique creates an effect in the structure that is reminiscent of a double helix; the very building block of life itself. From this observation he developed his Helix sculptures to represent nature, life, energy, and movement; emulating this idea in form and content. Sometimes the work is just a driven sculptural form using this idea to make an abstract.
Working with the fluidity of the glass in a molten state to manipulate it, mould it, and to work with gravitational force to create his signature spiral.