Canto XXXIV: [no title] 1983

Editor: Tom Phillips’s "Canto XXXIV" presents us with an open book from which erupts a collection of images, set against a starry sky. It feels like a portal. What memories or stories do you think Phillips is trying to evoke? Curator: I see the open book as a powerful symbol of knowledge and revelation, connected to a mosaic of memories. The collage acts as a visual echo chamber. What persistent symbols do you notice? Editor: There are many faces, figures, texts. It feels dense with meaning. It’s as if the book is both the source and the container of these fragmented memories. Curator: Exactly. Phillips seems interested in how cultural memory persists. The starry sky might represent the vastness of time and collective experience. The book and images are the vessel and the cargo for such memory. Editor: I never thought of a painting as a form of cultural memory! Curator: Art invites us to connect with it. What do you think is the connection between art and memory?