The Secret Life of Criminals

The Secret Life of Criminals is a series of seven intimate, small scale film and video installations comprised of short gestural narratives based on observations of human behaviour. These mini dramas are based on occurrences, interactions or acts of folly which play out daily in any bedroom, bus, street corner, car, restaurant, park, ravine. These witnessed events signal distress, melt down or illness as metaphor to larger issues confounding our existence.
“I am interested in how people undo themselves and seemingly participate in their own misfortune. I see this behavioral paradox - of short circuiting one’s best interests, as the root of my continuing interest and engagement with narrative form.” Paulette Phillips
The work, informed by research into the unsolved murder of a middle aged woman, is open to interpretation. The work explores tensions within relationships and reflects the complex and paradoxical nature of morality, assumptions and desire. Each installation is grounded by a repetitive and gestural based video loop contained within a sculptural component. The sculpture acts as an apparatus of delivery, implicating the viewer through the act of viewing and reflecting the content of the video on a material basis. These pieces work in unison when installed in a gallery to form a larger narrative or work singularly as quixotic references to the nature of human interaction and endeavor.

Four pieces have been produced and exhibited in various galleries including:
Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London England
The Brussels Art Fair
The London Art Fair
Paul Petro Contemporary Art
Whitechapel Gallery, London
Cambridge Art Gallery, Ontario
Oakville Galleries, Ontario.