Heather Phillipson interviews
Poet and artist Heather Phillipson was interviewed in The Guardian of 11 March 2020 ahead of the planned unveiling of her sculpture THE END on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth. This was due to take place on 26 March, but was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Read the profile here. The fourth plinth sculpture was finally unveiled on 30 July 2020. News coverage included a piece in The Guardian here.
In April 2022 it was announced that Heather has been nominated for the Turner Prize 2022 for her sculpture THE END on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square and for her recent solo exhibition at Tate Briton. News in The Guardian here.
The Telegraph will be running Heather Phillipson’s poem ‘Take Spanking White Pants’ from her second collection Whip-hot & Grippy as their poem of the week on 7 May 2022. It has already appeared online in their Culture newsletter here.
‘There’s a knowingly self-defeating quality to the OTT maximalism, and a deadpan humour that her poetry brings to light.’ – Tristram Fane Saunders, Poem of the Week, The Telegraph (on Whip-hot & Grippy)
BBC RADIO 3 INTERVIEWS WITH HEATHER PHILLIPSON
Private Passions, BBC Radio 3, Sunday 20 September 2020, 12pm
Heather Phillipson was Michael Berkeley’s guest on BBC Radio 3’s Private Passions on 20 September 2020.
Among Heather’s musical choices was one of her own compositions ‘Splashy Phasings’, which features her own voice. She spoke about the importance of music to all her work, and of finding just the right peanut butter texture for the recordings she chose.
‘Michael Berkeley’s guest is the artist Heather Phillipson whose giant swirl of cherry-topped, fly-blown whipped cream has recently been installed on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. Heather was a serious classical musician in her teens, and often uses music she’s composed and performed in her work. She talks to Michael about music she’s loved since her childhood, including a Mozart symphony and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf; a radical opera by Robert Ashley from the 1980s that has had a profound influence on her work; piano music by Grieg which reminds her of her grandmother; and the soaring emotional impact of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5.’
Listen here (35 minute podcast with shorter musical clips)
HEATHER PHILLIPSON RADIO 3 FEATURE
Heather Phillipson's half-hour radio poem/audio collage Almost Gone was broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Between the Ears on 15 March 2020. Listen here. Heather suggests that this is best listened to in the dark, through headphones.
HEATHER PHILLIPSON ON RADIO 3’s THE VERB
Heather Phillipson spoke about and read from Whip-hot & Grippy on Radio 3’s The Verb on 5 July 2019. Click here to listen. Heather features at 7.50.
~~~
The Daily Telegraph, Best New Poetry Books to Buy for Christmas, Saturday 16 November 2019
Heather Phillipson’s second collectionWhip-hot & Grippy was chosen by Tristram Fane Saunders for his ‘best new poetry books to buy for Christmas’ feature in the Telegraph. Linked to his full review of the book from 4 May – Whip-hot & Grippy was his poetry book of the month for April.
‘If you want a first collection that could spark a movement, try Witch by Rebecca Tamás (Penned in the Margins, £9.99)… Along with Fran Lock’s image-packed Contains Mild Peril (Outspoken, £9.99) and Heather Phillipson’s whip-smart and glitchy Whip-hot & Grippyy (Bloodaxe, £12), it’s at the centre of a school I tentatively labelled the New Witchcraft in these pages; they’re all deliciously OTT, and have urgent things to say.’ – Tristram Fane-Saunders, The Telegraph (Christmas Poetry Books 2019)
Available in full here via subscription (register to see a few articles for free).
The Telegraph, Poetry Book of the Month, online Wednesday 1 May, in print Saturday 4 May 2019
Heather Phillipson’s second collection Whip-hot & Grippy is Tristram Fane Saunders’ Poetry Book of the Month for April in The Telegraph. The review appeared in the print edition on Saturday 4 May, and is available online here.
‘Next year Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth will hold an enormous dollop of whipped cream, topped with a cherry, a fly and a buzzing drone. Created by British artist and author Heather Phillipson, that sugar-rush sculpture – surreal, witty and grotesque – captures the essence of her poetry.’ – Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph (choosing Whip-hot & Grippy as his Poetry Book of the Month for April 2019)
Heather Phillipson's sculpture THE END on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London, was unveiled in July 2020 - more here.
[26 November 2019]
