Precisely Five Minutes with artist Philip Colbert.

A concise conversation with Scottish neo pop artist and shellfish fetishist, Philip Colbert, conducted at last year’s inaugural ARTSG fair.

JOURNEYS IN ARTISTRY: How has travel affected your practice and influenced your art?

PHILIP COLBERT: It’s actually been quite a profound thing for me, really — travel — because I was born in Perth in Scotland, and grew up there. And it’s obviously an amazing place, very beautiful, but quite a small scene in terms of what’s possible artistically or career-wise. And so I found the very nature of travelling an amazing energy exchange; an opportunity to be inspired and to push boundaries more. I find that just being in new places, and meeting lots of people, having conversations has helped me push my, I guess, my feeling of what’s possible, within my own work. And I find even just the confidence I’ve gained from travelling and getting support in countries, has really helped me.

So (travel has helped) creatively, financially, you know, and even just those conversations or dialogues with people from different cultures. Because art should always aspire to go beyond, you know, localities — to try and tackle big human things, and a way of understanding things in a broader sense is meeting people from different cultures. Because you go beyond the local politics, and you try to tap into humanity, in a bigger sense. That’s why, I guess, as an artist that works in let’s say a pop dimension, it’s amazing to be able to connect to people in different cultures, which are quite different — where the language barriers are there yet still, you can have very direct meaningful communication. So yes, it’s been quite an important thing for me to travel.

Your work clearly displays a modern Asian influence — did that result from physically visiting the Far East or was it absorbed from afar through media, pop culture, the internet?

It’s probably just nostalgia. It’s also just my own, you know, philosophy distilled in aesthetics. I think I’m very inspired by primary colours. And for me, someone asked me yesterday, what for me, what is art for me or something like that. I guess I described it as like a tornado of energy, that creates a magic. Because I think, ultimately, the transference of the object to the viewer, there’s something about the empowerment of energy, you know, how art can be this dimension where you can communicate — just like great music, where you get the hairs standing up on the back of your neck sort of thing? It’s transferring energy, that empowers the audience, because that’s what’s powerful about art. It’s not selfish. It’s about actually encouraging creativity, inspiring people with creativity. So I guess, like, yeah, I don’t know if that answers the question.

How does it make you feel, seeing your art installed in a collector’s home, knowing that’s something they live with and appreciate each day? And do you often feel an affinity with your collectors, build friendships with them?

Yeah, it’s really cool. The relationship thing is amazing, you know, life is ultimately defined by human relationships, nothing else really, it’s the quality of relationships, that’s the meaning of everything, you know? So it’s quite amazing, having surprising connections. In the journey of life, those relationships formed and can be surprising. Sometimes you meet a collector, you can meet with collectors from all different walks of life. And it’s very interesting, I find, to discover what people see in my work, how or why they connect to it. Often it’s interesting seeing the type of people the collectors are — more often than not, I actually get on with the collectors quite well. It’s interesting how you communicate with people through an object, and then how that can start a real discussion.

ALL IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOURNEYS IN ARTISTRY AT THE PEARL LAM GALLERIES BOOTH, ARTSG 2023.

What’s the most surprising location you’ve seen your work hanging?

Well, my favourite restaurant in Rome has one of my works on the wall. This restaurant is called Pietro, it’s commonly regarded amongst the real hardcore Roman locals, who really know about food, as the best Roman restaurant and the restaurant is run like an art piece. So it’s quite an honour for me to have my work in this restaurant, because I love it so much. They also printed some of my doodles on menus and stuff, so it’s really an honour for me to have my work in my favourite restaurant.

Thank you, Philip, that was precisely five minutes.