this is a sculpture: le fil

Throughout Philip’s life, music has always played an important role in his creativity. Since early childhood, Philip sang constantly. He wrote songs, joined choirs, and performed in many concerts, events and musicals. However, whilst studying at Camberwell College of Arts, music patiently took a back seat while Philip explored the world of art and sculpture.

However, as Philip’s live art performances increased, he found himself naturally working again on music to soundtrack his performances and visual worlds. This time round, Philip had a greater understanding of how music, like art, can be used as philosophy to shape minds, culture and identities. He saw the possibilities of what music could offer. To Philip, music is a form of sound sculpture - a sculpture where listeners could experience it viscerally and on a different emotional level to his visual arts.

This re-ignition into the world of music sparked a new era. Music became the language that allowed Philip to further explore his ideas of gender and identity. Consequently, he wanted to be able to unite his different strands of disciplines into one practice. He wanted to create an artistic world for himself, where all his disciplines could exist on one level. He wanted to connect them all with one single thread - and came up with the project ‘Le Fil’.

‘This Is A Sculpture’ (2010), film below, was written to explore a sculptural manifesto for Le Fil. It was filmed and edited by director Georgia Hudson, and sound artist Chris King.

Following the creation of ‘This Is A Sculpture’ and the ceramic armour body-sculptures, Philip’s began to write songs again. His first songs were ‘Panther’ and ‘Warrior’, created with producer Duncan Thornley. They were dark, brooding songs that utilised Philip’s deep vocals juxtaposed with falsetto notes. The lyrical themes explored the onset of a new chapter ready to be unleashed. The sound of the songs gave Philip the confidence to explore more songwriting, and the marriage of all these disciplines excited Philip. From this point onwards, Philip decided to start working under the name of ‘Le Fil’.

The name Le Fil represents the meeting point of my disciplines and ideas. Translated in French, it means the thread or line, which I interpret as the running thread that connects all my disciplines. Whilst also being a shortened version of my name Philip, Le Fil also wordplays on gender roles i.e the masculine version of ‘la fille (the girl)’, reflecting the themes of androgyny and fluidity of gender that feature in my art.