Found objects. Recycled instrument parts. Fragments of nature. My visual vocabulary comprises salvaged materials that reveal the rigors of their history. Every object has a story. My intention is to convey these stories.
I approach each piece with memory, context and rhythm in mind. Informed by nature, science and math, my organizing principle is often the same: how a relationship is the appearance of order and how order implies meaning. At least it seems to. People don’t question 46 pieces of coral scattered on the beach. But deliberately arrange the same pieces of coral equidistantly in a straight line, and people will ask, “What does that spell?” Put 50 broken pianos keys in a circle, and people wonder, “What does that mean?” As I begin to organize things, a relationship emerges. A relationship that has order. It is order. It’s something I can describe. Logic suggests that if you can name it, it has meaning. In my work, I get to control that meaning. And that, for whatever reason, feels good.
Louise Philbrick, 2013