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The poster, and the coverage in 'Vogue' magazine, for the Percy Marks Exhibition, 1993.
The reference to the Medici, in the titles of some of the table-pieces Phill made, alludes to his respect for many of the hardstone pieces, collected or commissioned by the Medici in Florence, during the Renaissance.
Wishing to learn more about their construction, Phill was made the recipient of an Australia Council Grant, in 1994, to travel to Florence and study them at the Museo d'agli Argenti. Phill was grateful for this opportunity, which has informed his work ever since.
Phill used rutilated quartz in many pieces after visiting Antarctica in 1993. Also called 'Venus hairstone', the needle-lines of rutile within the clear quartz lend it the overall impression of cold and fragile cracked ice.
Co-incidentally, 'rock crystal', which was originally believed to be ice turned into stone, was used extensively by the Renaissance artisans for producing large table-pieces. What we now think of as more precious stone, such as lapis lazuli, was also popularly employed.
To fabricate larger pieces, they would join lapidary sections together with collets or strapping, thus extending the given boundaries of the stone at hand. Phill would go on to add to the vocabulary of this technique in a contemporary manner.
The direction that such influences and interests gave, was bound to help steer Phill's work. These materials and techniques, combined with Phill's own artistic preoccupations, resulted in such pieces as 'Saturn Safe for the Keeping of Affections'.