Philip Ullman at Goswell Road / Paris

Philip Ullman
I’VE NEVER BEEN AS HAPPY AS THAT MOMENT
March 9 – April 6, 2024
 
Goswell Road
22 Rue de l’Échiquier
Paris, France
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All images courtesy and copyright of the artist and space.

 

In closed isolated spaces I can be myself. There I don’t suffer from the projections of others onto my body and their readings of my mental state. I can inhabit other bodies and I can be wherever I’d like. 

 

A girl finds a monster in the pigsty on the farm where she lives. The inability to domesticate or train the monster creates a relationship like one she’s never had before, challenging her perception of belonging and understanding. 

 

Anthropomorphic princess Sophie and her maid Jessica prepare for a new day in the royal court. Sophie’s struggle to play her role propels the two protagonists forward and backwards in time, through worlds and identities to find a way to live together. 

 

A mouse finds herself reciting childhood memories in a sterile living room. Shards
of an alienating past paint the portrait of a human life. A sense of loss pervades the atmosphere as she’s torn between being human and being mouse, between being alive and being in a simulation. 

 

A humanoid fox is locked inside the confession booth of the Big Brother Mansion, a room where contestants are invited to confess their secrets to the camera. The fox is seemingly drifting around with their eyes closed, vocalizing sounds, and exploring their internal being. 

 

Philip Ullman is a Swedish artist and filmmaker, living and working in Amsterdam. By capturing human movements and voices and applying these to non-human characters within fictional, 3D-animated realities, they question the grounds on which value and sentience are prescribed, why one life is more valuable than another, and what it means to be human.