Exhibitions

TWINS

How do twins view twinship?

Good things come in pairs. Twins by Twins explores the incomparable bond formed from sharing a womb and how this connection shapes the lived experience of the twin artist. The closeness that twins experience often gives them a particular perspective on life: balancing a special connection and external similarities with the desire to develop a distinct identity. This tension between sameness and uniqueness has the potential to both bring them together and tear them apart.

Instead of showing an “outsider” view of a topic often muddled by stereotypes and misconceptions, the work presented is an intimate portrayal of how it feels to be a twin – from the perspective of twin artists.

Chris Phillips interview

Hello Chris, for people who don’t know you, could you please give a short introduction to yourself.

My name is Chris Phillips, I’m originally from Brazil and I’ve been in Berlin for 9 years. I’m the founder of the art collective Pornceptual and one of the co-founders of the queer festival WHOLE. I’ve been working in Berlin as an artist and creative director for different projects.

How would you say you have evolved as an artist during this time?

I definitely found my true self in Berlin because I was able to experience freedom like never before. I arrived here being quite naive, so the past decade has also showed me how to embrace the darkness of life while still staying optimistic about the future. As an artist, I’ve learned that collaborating is the best way of staying creative.

I met you in 2013 and I have been following your career with much interest. In fact your first Berlin show in 2014 at The Ballery ‘My Berlin Tales’ seems long ago and yet here we are again in 2022 with a new solo exhibition TWINS. I think I suggested this idea of twins to you and I guess I was curious about how you would approach it. As I have yet to see the full series and I have yet to get to know the work, perhaps you can say something about what took you in the direction you have gone in and what has been your process?

My work has always been very focused on eroticism and nakedness, so I was intrigued about working with a theme that wasn’t sex-related this time. When you are a twin, you can’t really escape this subject. People are easily fascinated by it and they have a series of weird questions that they ask you all the time. So, before every shoot, I was asking all the twins what questions they get asked often annoyed them the most. I would then ask them what their special connection is. This was setting the mood of the shoot.

Looking at the work that you have now developed, what can you say about the process and the final selection?

My goal is to present a more experimental process, so I’m working with different materials including fabric and resin. So instead of only framing photos on a white wall, I’m exploring the concept of photos as sculptures. Since the process is quite experimental, I can’t re-create some of the images more than once.

What would you do next in your research as an artist?

Finding new ways of connecting with people while creating art. Also to get deeper into understanding queer identities and pushing sexual freedom.