Philip Keers

My work is primarily mixed media sculpture with elements of performance and sound installation. Inspiration for my work comes mainly from relationships with those around me but is also greatly inspired by where I fit into society in Northern Ireland as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
As a self-professed Text-based Artist, language plays a key role and sometimes takes the centre stage of my work in the literal use of letters in sculptural form, and most recently in an ongoing project of placard making. However, it also comes in subtler ways through heavily thought out titles I give other sculptures, exhibitions and performances
In my performance work, I am currently concerned with language that I find toxic and outdated. Words that are used to cause upset. Bringing these words to the forefront to highlight their misuse and to also try to take ​proud new ownership over them relishing them useless.
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I use text as the main element in my work as I see this as such an immediate form of communicating my point or idea and literally spelling it out to the viewer. I am fascinated by the origins of words, double meanings and homophones. In my sculptural work,​ I try to harness this fascination creating letters forming words that change when you look at them from a different direction. There is always another way to look at things.
Biography
Phil Keers (b. 1994) is an artist living and working in Belfast. He has just recently finished a yearlong residency at Belfast School of Art within the Sculpture Lens area of Fine Art, having graduated from Ulster University with a BA in Fine Art in 2018. His work is multi-disciplinary, mainly taking the form of sculpture, performance and sound installation.
His recent solo exhibition, 'Cut It Out' aimed to summarise an ongoing project within the performance element of Keers’ practice; deconstructing and examining language used in a derogatory or inflammatory way, and questioning why they are still part of common vocabularies today.
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Faggot
Fruit
Poof
Pansy
You need to man up
Boys will be boys
Grow a pair.
p.keers@hotmail.com
Instagram: @philkeers
