Kerry Phillips: The patience of ordinary things | May - August 2024

Locust Projects presents The patience of ordinary things, a newly commissioned installation by Miami-based artist Kerry Phillips that delves into the complex emotions and experiences surrounding aging, memory loss, and the essence of human connection. In a bold leap in her practice, Phillips immerses us in the deeply personal narrative of her aging parents' care through interplay of video, moving projections, and spatial design that evokes an emotive response and fosters a communal space for shared reflections on life, loss, and legacy.
In a significant departure from the work featured in her recent solo Bass Museum show in 2023, Phillips’ massive, site-specific installation in Locust Projects 2,600 sq ft Main Gallery features first-person narrative video exploring the minutiae of daily life through the repetitive, seemingly mundane tasks, such as folding laundry or playing with cards, which anchor those experiencing memory loss to the present.
Beyond its visual and interactive elements, the exhibition serves as a meditation on the narratives we construct to make sense of aging and mortality. The real difficulty of dealing with one of our great modern taboos. The patience of ordinary things provides a deeply intimate perspective on the profound themes of aging, memory, and human experience, a modern memento mori, probing the shifting perspectives and changing dynamics of family, community, and self-awareness, offering a space for visitors to confront their fears, hopes, and expectations around death and remembrance, reflecting on the universal threads that connect us across the temporal divide.
The exhibition is on view through August 3, 2024, Wednesdays-Fridays from 11am-5pm and Saturday by appointment.