Phillip Adams: Leave No Trace | 360 tour et VR

When first encountering Phillip Adams’s work, the viewer immediately notices how beautifully the landscapes are rendered. With each pebble and each wave perfectly placed and drawn, his layered mark-making creates craggy mountains and rough seas that are faithful to nature. Were these images simply representations of the outdoors, they would be lovely drawings, hinting at the real places on which Adams bases his work, but Adams goes beyond depictions of beautiful landscapes. Phillip Adams meticulously depicts scenes of nature disrupted by humankind’s presence. The teeter totter, the chair, and the plastic pink flamingos leave the viewer questioning how these objects came to inhabit otherwise pristine environments. Adams has written that he “explores ideas related to nature and our impulses to control, reshape, and even destroy the landscapes and environments [we steward]. Embedded in the work is a paradox of the desire to leave our mark while simultaneously seeking out the pristine, remote, and idyllic. With overtures to the climate crisis humanity faces, this work straddles the weight of rapidly changing environments with playful moments of seeming whimsy.” Yet, the playground equipment and other objects that may at first glance bring a lightness to the imagery – the “seeming whimsy” mentioned in Adams’s statement – are more disturbing than fanciful. In his newest work, The Open Road, Slow Ride, and Free Throw, Adams speaks directly to the dangers of climate change. With water flooding roadways and rising to nearly the tops of traffic signs and with pool toys floating in rough seas, Adams’s 2023 work unambiguously reflects the more drastic environmental threats that continue to increase daily. Indeed, the yield sign in Slow Ride could not send a clearer message.