Comrade Objects presents a new body of work by Glasgow-based Canadian artist Ciara Phillips that introduces her process-marked print semiotics: energetic blocks of colour, repeating motifs, slogans and, recently, black & white portraits of women engaged in focused work. In this, her first major exhibition in Canada, Phillips also mounts a new iteration of her Turner prize-nominated Workshop (2010 – ongoing), wherein the gallery is transformed with screen printing equipment into an active space of investigation, social action, discussion and debate. To explore the ethics and potential of “making together,” Phillips invites Canadian artist, artist-curator and artist-publisher, Clive Robertson to co-produce posters and publications in situ. Comrade Objects draws the art object away from the pressures of ownership or display, and toward its powers of access and involvement, offering both exuberant teamwork and moments of quiet encounter.

Hero image: Ciara Phillips, Corin Looking, 2015, screenprint on linen. Purchase, Gallery Association Purchase Fund, 2017.

Supported by George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund, Queen’s University. Phillips’s five-week Residency is supported by the Queen’s University Arts Fund, Visiting Artist-in-Residence program.