This first monograph on Phillip Lai charts the artist's work over the last two decades. Lai's sculptures often combine materials like cooking pots and aluminium with the artist’s own meticulous re-makings of everyday objects. Through these technologies, Lai examines the different ways we relate to objects in contemporary life and highlights the various chains of making, consuming and disposing at work in the material world.
The publication’s pared back design and material palette was purposefully minimal in response to Lai’s artistic practice, and its large format and cloth-bound cover emphasise the considerable body of work included. Plate, installation and studio images are set in multiple grids to create an unusual variation and pace, while cut-short coloured paper inserts give the reader a moment of pause and allow the English and Chinese text to work together.
