Wish You were Here? (2021)

The collages created for the Wish you were here? (2021) series by Phil Scott explore our concept of memory and attachment to a place. 

The juxtaposition and connections in the work relate through line, colour and content to form new surrealist environments that recall the longing and connection we craved during the global pandemic.  Scott incorporates carefully-sourced imagery from travel brochures, which advertise destinations that we were unable to reach. 

The work questions where we would like to be, without fully associating the memory of places with a specific location. Inspired by the surrealist works of Max Ernst, Scott invites us to explore preternatural landscapes that lend themselves to chance finds and careful consideration. The compositions present unrestrained boundaries and borders that encourage our minds to wander and find our own narratives. The series plays with the concept of memory. It combines places using both forced and organic connections, creating a landscape we feel we recognise, but at the same time we recognise as fantastical. 

The methodology of the creative practice employs accuracy and a haphazard combination of collaged photography from redundant travel brochures stacked up during lockdown. The work transforms the unobtainable to offer glimpses of hope, like the possibility of visiting a far away island, as in Ø (2021) or the comforting woodland of Skov (2021).