Pearl Lam (林明珠): Hello, this is Pearl Lam Podcast. I’m very happy today. I’m in, of course, I’m in London now. I’m sitting here with Philip Colbert and in his splendid, amazing studio, looking at all the lobsters and Philip, since a lot of people who’s watching this or listening to this podcast, they are not necessarily in the art world. So we give a very brief bio of yourself. Bio, bio or introduction?
Philip Colbert: Yes. Lovely to have you back in the studio, Pearl. Yeah, so a lot of people know me as the Lobster because that’s my, like, creative persona. I’m an artist, and I’m based here in London. I’m originally from Scotland, and I studied philosophy, which was, I think, the first, like, big. Aside from very poignant connections with. With lobsters at the seaside when I was a very small kid, it was probably the first step. Studying philosophy was, like, probably the most significant, I guess, influence in my artistic career in terms of. I was obsessed with Friedrich Nietzsche and Hegel and Schofenharr and these 19th century philosophers, and that had a big impact on my thinking about the world and thinking about art. And I was always obsessed with art since a small kid. But, yeah, it took me a while to actually become an artist, let’s say, vocationally.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Let’s start from the very beginning.
Philip Colbert: Yeah.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): A scottish boy graduated from University of Edinburgh, St. Andrews. St. Andrews, sorry.
Philip Colbert: Next.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Edinburgh. How did you have the dream of coming to London? Was it planned for you to come to London?
Philip Colbert: No, it wasn’t really planned for me. I think, you know, I was pretty spaced out as a kid, and I think that luckily, they’re coming across a book, human alter human, by Frederick Nietzsche, when I was, like, pretty high as a sort of 16 year old or something, was probably quite an important thing for me, because I think otherwise, I was very spaced and I wasn’t very engaged, and I could have easily just ended up working in a shop in a small town in Scotland or doing something, like, super random. So in a way, that was quite an important part of me switching my brain on a little, because I think it was an agency, I think reading philosophy books, reading Nietzsche, for example, inspired me because it gave me an agency about my own identity and my own, the malleability of my own identity.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Nietzsche influenced a lot of artists, musician.
Philip Colbert: Artist, composer, because Nietzsche wrote with passion. It’s like thinking with passion. And I think that’s what was so inspiring. It’s very poetical and very passionate. And I think it’s a bit like I was also obsessed with Nirvana, for example, when I was a teenager as well. Like I was obsessed with Kurt Cobain and grunge and all this stuff. So I went through the different periods as almost teenagers do good, different periods, like music was a big, big thing and the musicians and everything. And I think, like, for me, Frederick Nietzsche was like, I guess I would always been a bit disillusioned at school with like the hierarchy of teachers and authority and like the conveyor belt of like being packaged and put down the conveyor belt. So I was pretty like anti it. But rather than doing anything about that or I say anything, I was just like switching off. And the problem when you just switch off is then you just get packaged and sent down the conveyor belt, but you’re not even aware and you just let it happen. And I think, like the reading philosophy really gave me the agency to sort of wake up, to realize actually your identity is something you’re in control of and you can actually change or you can play with it if you’re not happy or you’re being presented or pushed down the line, you can change at.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): The age of 16, 17, 18. At that age you already think, well.
Philip Colbert: Those are the key formative years where you’re like, you know, and especially also at schools like quite.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): You’re pretty mature.
Philip Colbert: No, I think I was luckily just more of an outsider kid, you know.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So I had that freedom of time indulgence at all.
Philip Colbert: No, I think I, you know, I guess I had a bit of time to think.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yeah, but you are very well versed in history of art.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, well, I love the language of art. It’s what I obsess with is my obsession. And so I’m very lucky to be working in this realm which I’m passionate about.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): You know, we are talking about today, pop art, pop artist. I mean, you are right in the center of this. Phenomenal actually, because pop artists has always been having a problem that, you know, the institution they are actually pushing. We don’t want pop artists. We want artists who’s very intellectual, who’s very academic with conceptual. Do you feel that you’re being discriminated.
Philip Colbert: No, definitely not. I don’t think that. I think that, you know, in society, there’s always going to be changing fashions, and there’s always going to be things that are, you know, the establishment, promote or like, or don’t like. And I think that can change. And I think, but I think also the role of the artist is slightly, you know, the different artists do different things, and that’s great. You know, there’s no, like, one philosophy for everyone. Like, I happen to be someone that really believes in the spirit of art for everyone. And also I’m very anti pretension. So for the very essence of me, I’m quite anti this sort of hierarchy of taste and judgment. Absolutely right.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Hierarchy of art form is a little bit.
Philip Colbert: So for me, in a way, I’m totally cool with not necessarily being championed by the hierarchy of the establishment because that’s never been my thing, not what I’m necessarily interested in. I’m much more interested in making art and just communicating to people and doing that in creative ways. And I think for me, like, the freedom of art to explore different mediums and whether it’s multimedia with, like, animations or cartoons or metaverse projects or sculptures or city takeovers, they’re all ways of, like, reaching new audience and, like, pushing my work in new dimensions and in a way, like, collectively changing the phenomenon of what the art is. Because I think, you know, art exists as, you know, as an artist, you make works in different dimensions. Like, most artists today make works like, whether it’s sculpture or painting or some digital thing.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yeah.
Philip Colbert: Or even just the way they talk about the work, because the artist, obviously, the relationship between the artist and the work is also very important. So there’s a performative aspect to everyone’s work, which is just what they’ve got to say about it, the stories they tell. Like, ultimately, art is the collectivity of the objects, of the sort of relics of the story.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So, what pushed you to come to London instead of staying in Scotland?
Philip Colbert: Well, I think it was just, it wasn’t like a grand plan or anything. It was just like, after graduating, it was the obvious place to get, to try and get a job or for me, it was like, at that stage, it was like, well, I didn’t know much about the art world. I knew in my head that one day I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t quite know how to do that. And so initially, then I created a clothing label because I thought, oh, that’s a. I was very inspired by Diaghilev and ballet rouge and all this stuff. And I was quite into the concept of like that. That would be something like, you know, selling a t shirt or something is an easier way of making, you know, making money or making a living than selling a painting. So I didn’t know how to do that. I set out doing that and then quickly it sort of evolved into making like wearable artworks and going a bit more experimental and I had this sort of concepty band and I was rapping.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So first thing is if you do a clothing line, a fashion line and so on, you must be a very good self because you must have an idea of how to do marketing, packaging and then to sell.
Philip Colbert: Well, I think there’s no choice. I mean, I think if you want to do that as your vocation and you’ve got your choice, I mean, it’s like you either make it flat.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I know a lot of fashion designer.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, but it was very hard.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Like fashion, they can’t sell. They are fantastic, but they can’t outsell.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, well, I think, you know, it was very difficult and I think, but it was a hustle and I think, you know, that was hard. But I think like anything you, you work at it and work leads to things. So I think it.
Pearl Lam (林明珠):So after that, what was the next step and how did you evolve to establish an artist’s career?
Philip Colbert: Yeah, so I started collaborating with brands like Snoopy or Disney and these type of established IP brands that liked what I was doing and were like, oh, will you use some of our characters or reinvent them a little bit? And so that was financially helpful because these brands would have money and they would pay me to do stuff to make things with, with their IP stuff. And that gave me support in the sense I was able to then play around and make collections of bags or crazy outfits with these collaborative projects.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): It’s really funny. Traditionally, all those collaborations are being frowned at in the fine art world. And today artist needs collaboration to make artist a brand, depending on what sort of artist you want to be. I mean, if you’re a popular artist, you want an artist brand to collaborating to put you on the map. So did you enjoy these collaboration? Besides you were making money for survival.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, you know, I love that. I love the spirit of collaboration. I do a lot of it today. Like I’m very, and I think that’s something I learned in the early days, that the power of collaboration and the power of reaching a different audience and like expanding one’s medium because it just like makes, you know, reaches more people, and I think, like, now. Now I’ve got, like, quite a few different collaborations coming out at the moment, some new ones, but definitely worked with quite a lot over the years. And we’ve just got, next month, the Johnnie Walker whiskey collaboration of all the bottles and packaging and everything, with some little sculpture collectibles across China and Taiwan. And then I’ve got collaboration coming out in Korea. So, yeah, there’s a lot of new things happening.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): When you first started, did you already have this lobster alter ego in your mind?
Philip Colbert: No. It sort of evolved. I started, I guess, as I was building my vocabulary of language, like symbols. I was always really into pop culture symbols, a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was like the power of the symbol to jump across the street and catch someone’s attention. And if you’ve got a second of someone’s attention, you want to hit them with a sort of, like, an icon, something that profoundly means something, but is it also infinitely accessible? So I was always interested in this balance between meaning within symbols, and so I would gravitate to symbols I found bold, fun, but yet meaningful. And the lobster was one of those symbols that I really liked because of the surrealism, immortality connotation, like the dali es esque, like the protagonist almost, of surrealism. I felt the lobster was like a caricature of the spirit of surrealism. So there’s a symbol. Just having that symbol channeled that idea, and so.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But your lobster is incredibly cute. So this is different from the lobster.
Philip Colbert: See, the little symbol of the lobster is what I used to. I could do of this. I would wear, and I would have suits or blah, blah, blah. And people started calling me Lobster Man. So that was having the symbol, and then I really became obstemator. It started with a t shirt, and then ended up with a shirt.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): How wonderful. And then later on, it’s on the canvas.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, then on canvas. So that was really when I started really identifying as a lobster, when I was like, oh, my God, I am a lobster. Probably the epiphany moment probably came in, like, 2017, when I was, like, gonna start painting again. And I was, like, got myself a studio, and then I was, like, facing this idea of, like, painting, making paintings, but also, like, representing me in painting. And I was like, well, I’ve already. When I was thinking about it, I was thinking, well, I’ve already sort of got an identity. People sort of call me Lobster Man already. Cause I’ve always got the lobster symbol. And so I was thinking about my identity, and I was thinking about how, you know, this sort of mask we wear of what we do. And, and I think artists, you make the stuff and you put it out there and that becomes a form of your identity. It becomes your, you know, how people perceive you. It’s your projected identity. And I think I’d already created, in a way, this identity. So I was like, well, you know what? It’s obvious it’s already there. I’m just going to embrace it and channel that and evolve it, really. And that’s when I painted myself, really, as a more figurative lobster character in an interior scene. And then it was like, okay, well, that then led to more narrative where the lobster character was doing different things. Early days, it was very much like the character was like myself was often battling the sea of information and references, which I think was my representation of my brain. Like the realism of my experience of life at that point. Like all the historical theory I was interested in, but the crazy submersion of emojis and hyper stimulation, just the hyper scroll and this sort of idea of a pop landscape today, you know, like, rather than being, rather than being a sort of idealized, like, billboard Wesselman, it’s actually a hyper, hyper pop, hyper stimulation. And it’s everything all at once, you know, for everyone sort of thing.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I mean, to let the audience to know is Philip does not eat seafood. Once I was serving lobster when she came to that, he nearly free cupped.
Philip Colbert: I thought you were just trying to finish me off. It was a deliberate, cynical attempt to kill lobster man, to invite him to a lobster dinner.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): To a lobster dinner.
Philip Colbert: Everyone would eat me. And it reminds me of that kid’s book, Lenny the Lobster comes for dinner.
Pearl Lam: But what amazes me is you take the lobster character and you develop into a metaphor. It’s called lobster polis, right?
Philip Colbert: Yeah.
Pearl Lam: The lobster populace develop into completely the world, the metaphors, the world of the lobster. How are you seeing digital art? I mean, how are you going to build, I mean, I see you building the lobster into the digital art. What is your confidence or how digital art is going to involve evolved?
Philip Colbert: Yeah, well, for me, the digital medium is really the medium of our time in terms, of course, we’ve seen the evolution.
Pearl Lam: You cannot deny that.
Philip Colbert: That’s obvious. I mean, it’s like beyond. Obviously, that makes the dimension where art is really defining the age we’re living in the most powerful in a way, because that’s the language changing, game changing medium where things are evolving constantly and opportunities which would never have been possible before were possible. So for me, I was very interested in that. Obviously. I was always experimenting with how to find new mediums and things. So the metaverse was virtual reality was at first the thing that I got into and started building lobsteropolis and lobster, the lobster planet with, as a virtual reality experience. I mean, I was always interested in the idea of, you know, an artist historically would present a painting as a vision of you, like a world. And that was like a magical window. And with technology, in a way, you can step into that.
Pearl Lam: You just bring them to the contemporary world.
Philip Colbert: Well, yeah, you go beyond the window. You go into the world. The audience actually opens the door and goes in rather than just look out the window. So it’s a real opportunity to immerse the audience fully in the artistic work experience. So I guess, like, I was very inspired by that initially. And then, as with the rise of the metaverse, this idea of a global space, like a digital, you know, dimension where. Where people could experience art all over the world without having to have a physical, without going to a physical location, was, I find, very interesting. So I built the Lobsteropolis city in Decentraland, which was the biggest artist development, single artist project.
Pearl Lam: Okay, you build this, but how are you marketing it to attract people to get into the lobsteropolis? Because to build one is one thing, market is another thing. So as an artist, you built it. So are you having a marketing team to market it?
Philip Colbert: No. I mean, I think I was lucky that when I built lobsteropolis, it happened to coincide with the boom of nfts. And the boom of the metaverse.
Pearl Lam: Yes, absolutely.
Philip Colbert: Just the very nature of having got a large site within Decentraland at that period where it became very hot, suddenly gave it some value, because it was just a big development, metaverse development. And I guess at that point also, nfts were very hot, and I launched my NFT project, the lobsters, by the.
Pearl Lam: Community, very, very successful.
Philip Colbert: And in a way that automatically then just drew some interest and attention. We used the metaverse a lot as a platform for the NFT community because I think that was really amazing with this NFT movement was, it was also about art, it was about community. It was democratic.
Pearl Lam: But how about now the NFT market is so down. Yeah, but so what do you think?
Philip Colbert: I mean, yeah, well, for me, it.
Pearl Lam: Was like community still.
Philip Colbert: Yes. So I’m lucky that I do have some really passionate community members all over the world. Often my different shows, whether it’s in Singapore or in China, Korea, like Japan, I’ll always have community members coming to my shows.
Pearl Lam: Oh, that’s wonderful.
Philip Colbert: Which is amazing. So there’s a really real aspect to it. So I find that amazing. And it’s actually, to be honest, even in Europe, anywhere I go in the world and have an exhibition, there will be 100% very passionate lobster community members. And I think that’s an incredible, like. So it is actually a form of, like, a fan club, in a way. People that are passionate about art and happen to really connect, particularly with. With my work. And in a way, them being part of the community gives them access to things. And we know we have a whole, you know, system of products and merchandise that goes to the whole.
Pearl Lam: Yeah, that’s what I find out. I always find, Philip, you are very special. You’re very current, today’s artist, because you actually have the whole thing. You have the merchandising, you touch in different platforms, you have huge collaboration with different people, and then you do things that shock people, like Venice Bernali. That was two years ago, when you have a big lobster floating into the harbor, and you have. You really have. You’re very good in marketing as well. You know how to put yourself in the. In the midst of the most important event. Like, I was in. I went to Rome especially to see.
Philip Colbert: Yes, you’re very.
Pearl Lam: Your sculpture lined. Lined along via what?
Philip Colbert: Via Veneto. Villa Boughsie Park.
Pearl Lam: Yeah, Veneto.
Philip Colbert: Yes, Via Veneto.
Pearl Lam: Veneto. All these things is. I can’t. I mean, I haven’t seen many artists who is able to create that.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, well, I guess I’m always. Yeah. As I’ve been experimenting in these different things, I think definitely the feeling of the city takeovers using large inflatables or larger public sculptures and things. Just an amazing way of taking the work out into the streets and having. And I guess, luckily, because my work is quite accessible, having a character, an alter ego, does also make that easier, because it just, you know, it’s something that can speak to a wide audience of people.
Pearl Lam: Just read about you, that you are influenced by old master, and that put old master into contemporary culture. Explain more about that, please.
Philip Colbert: Well, I’m obsessed with the history of art, and I guess I’m also obsessed with historical painting just because. Obsessed with art.
Pearl Lam: Just like I see some of those are very.
Philip Colbert: Yes, and I can see this. And I guess I was very interested in the structural device between these historic battle scenes, because if you think of historical painting, the most elevated paintings are often stories or, you know, great mythological stories.
Pearl Lam: I think you just like battles.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, well, I just. I love storytelling. I think art is effectively, you know, the essence of art. The magic of art is the story. Otherwise it’s just matter. Objects, you know, meaningless matter. But what gives it value is a story. And that’s the essence of art, is the story. And I think, like, historically, that was always very clear. You know, think of the Renaissance painters. They were obsessed with revisiting antiquity and the lost works of. From Pompeii or, you know, there’s always this desire to revisit also the high period of classic class, of the classics, you know, with. From the ancient Greeks. So there was always this interest in the. In art to tell stories and whether mythological, historical stories about battles, about culture.
Pearl Lam: But that is the old world. Remember today’s world? We were talking about conceptual paintings, which is a complete different things from telling stories and all.
Philip Colbert: Well, it can, but yet conceptual paintings fully require it more than anything.
Pearl Lam: A story, stories, but really is about a philosophy behind it.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, but that’s still a story. And also what I find interesting is you take a philosophy, it’s still point of view, and. Exactly. So in a battle, it’s just two different points of view, you know? So a battle is also a structure to illustrate the tension between light and dark. I mean, why is Caravaggio so good? Theatrical tension, dramatic, dramatic lighting. It’s, you know, the essence of historical art has always been that tension between light and dark, life and death. So I think this. This structural tension within battle composition, for me, has always been something. I find it an interesting device pictorially because it puts forces against each other, and it’s more about revealing the tensions within aesthetics than necessarily being. Talking about. I’m obviously not talking about any particular historical battle. I’m just using battle structure.
Pearl Lam: Yes, you do battle structure. This is it. But then you are a great art collector as well. But whatever you collect is not battle. Very impressive.
Philip Colbert: I would love to. I’d love to collect Rubens battle scenes. They’re just a little bit out of my price.
Pearl Lam: But I saw your other works with you, and you collected. It’s completely very different from what you painted.
Philip Colbert: No, but not necessarily, actually, because, I mean, if I could afford it, I would buy more of the artist that I’m very inspired by. But I do like, by bits and bobs of lesser works like by Alexandre Calderon Leger, works that have hugely influenced me as an artist. And I have, like, little bits and pieces by some of those guys. So in a way, those are things that are very visible within my artistic work, in a way, the influence. But, you know, it’s just not the complete picture, but part of the picture.
Pearl Lam: Tell me more about your, you know, you said that when you begin to make yourself make some money, you were doing collaboration. But how does these brands went and saw your work? You must be really good how to put your work.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, I think, like, I think you always. I’ve always had the philosophy that, you know, there’s obviously, there’s so much of everything today, so it’s very important, like, in whatever you do to, like, make a. Make an effort to be original and just not follow the cue, really, I’ve drawn the line of doing so. It’s always good to. To feel like not to follow the rules too much. Like, I think so. I think, like, always trying to, like, make a point of difference to make your work stand out and have clear identity. And I think then things, people that attracts people because I think, like, I’ve always, I guess, felt that, I mean, also just, you know, going out and about, like, I guess when I started, you know, you just go to other openings and you go out and about and just being out and about, things happen, whereas if you don’t go out and about. So I think it’s like there’s this balance of how much time we’d spend in the studio, but also, like, venturing out to things.
Pearl Lam: Of course, when, especially when you first begin, you want to meet everybody.
Philip Colbert: Yeah. So you sneak into parties, you know, it’s like, like the most fun parties. The one you’re not invited to, of course.
Pearl Lam: Gay creating.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, definitely the best way.
Pearl Lam: Yeah. So now you are supported by the art community as well. Well. So how are you feeling from, from, from freshly graduate, a person who doesn’t really know how to become an artist and now you’re being supported by the art community.
Philip Colbert: I think I’ve got something. One I’ve got sort of 1ft in the system and 1ft out of the system. I think I’m like. I’m sort of like, yeah, of course, yeah, yeah. So I always feel special, but I think I feel comfortable, like, in that sort of situation just because, like, I guess I. I like to try and exist across a few dimensions just because I think there’s a freedom in it. And I like, yeah. As we were talking about with collaboration with, like, I’m very lucky that I’ve been able to build an audience in Asia, which, you know, so many amazing countries where I find amazing connection and support for my work, that, to be honest, I think if we go back to the critical point of my career, I think, like, actually traveling, it was 100% the success factor of, like, taking. I think my first painting exhibition was at Satchi Gallery, and I was lucky that Charles Satchi actually installed the exhibition and everything and gave me this amazing space to do my first show. And from that, I had a Japanese dealer who’d actually been a big basquiat dealer back in the eighties.
Pearl Lam: Oh, I know. Show.
Philip Colbert: Yes, exactly. Sho who came to the show. Show. Came to the show and was like, oh, my God, Japan. People love this work. I need to bring you to Japan. So actually, show really was my first show. I got this show in Japan. Maybe it was. That invitation came 2017. I think we had the exhibition early, the very beginning of 2018, or end of two, I can’t quite remember. But it was around that period, and that was, like, my first foray into. And I just made my little lobster figure toy as well at that point. And. And at that point, it was an amazing thing, because it just having that one piece of good luck of getting an entry into the Asian market suddenly then opened three or four from that.
Pearl Lam: Yeah. Because I remember in Singapore last year, Marina Sand Bay has all your sculptures as well.
Philip Colbert: Yes. So, because it just. It started a chain reaction of interest. I think it just happened because I would say to young artists, like, in a way, the great thing about traveling or, like, following opportunity is, you know, if you. And sometimes, you know, you get an invitation, sometimes you actually have to just go and take a risk and go places. I mean, I think. I think what happened after that is I got a sort of opportunity part of a group show in China. And rather than just sending the work, I thought, you know, I’m gonna go as well because it’ll be interesting. I’ll learn about. And the very nature of me going. Meeting everyone, like, da da da, opened so many doors just by being there. And also, I just could see the energy. I could see the response was different in terms of. I could see that somehow the chemistry of connection was powerful. And I felt, actually, there’s so much opportunity to do things. And also the beauty of China at that point was 2017. 2018 was the building so many private. I think I got my first group show was at the Powerlong Museum.
Pearl Lam: Okay, all right. All right.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, in Shanghai. Yeah, in Shanghai, which is an amazing, huge, private museum. And I was, like, going around the space, which was gigantic, the size. Huge, huge. I was going around the size of this massive museum, and I was like, wow, this is insane, as a young artist, to be able to put works in a huge museum like this and have like 5000 people come to the opening and like, and I was wearing one of my fried egg suits and I was absolutely mobbed by people because I was willing to all want to.
Pearl Lam: Take pictures with me.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, I had lobster cap, a fried egg suit. I think I also had my lobster costume guy with me. I had like a person dressed up in the lobster costume hang out with me. So the lobster character, in a way, was also in the room and. Yeah, and just, it was like, it was like being at a rock concert or something. It was like people were so enthusiastic and so it just really opened my eyes and I was like, wow, there’s huge opportunity here to actually, if you’ve got ideas and big ideas, there’s huge spaces, huge galleries that are actually really interested in doing things. So it just sort of happened that from that, then it just, it was just like a domino effect of more and more museums and galleries in Asia, you know, gave me the opportunity to do exhibitions and then that just kept evolving, really, with more collaborations. I did the Adidas collaboration with Adidas with range of footwear and apparel and stuff. And then, and that was in all Asian countries and that, you know, so just, I think these different projects and obviously K pop stars buy my work and these type of things just all helped build this. And then Korea was a quite important.
Pearl Lam: I think you are one of the international artists who is really loved by the K pop stars.
Philip Colbert: Yeah. Like, it was cricket. I did my first show in Korea in 2019, and that was crazy because again, it’s similarly talking about the connection in China, like, in Korea, like, it just felt for some reason, the lobster character just really connected with people. And very quickly that went pretty crazy in Korea from my first exhibition there, you know, there’s a huge waiting list for works. And then when I had a museum show after that, it just went. Went quite crazy.
Pearl Lam: So when is your next show in Asia?
Philip Colbert: So in September, I have the project with Lotte for Freeze and K Eleven. You know the.
Pearl Lam: Oh, yes, I remember the K Eleven.
Philip Colbert: We’re putting like a giant lobster on the lake in Korea, which is quite cool because it’s been a project wanted to do for a long time, is put inflatable on the water, but it’s quite an expensive procedure. So very happy that Lotte have been.
Pearl Lam: At least their sponsor, they’re paying for it. Right? Congratulations. That’s great, because I think your project has to be really big.
Philip Colbert: I think. So it’s like pushing fantasy and reality and also, I think with that project also great, because in addition to that, we’re also doing a whole sculpture show in the park around it and merchandise and lots of things. It should really. And lots of digital art and all the screens around city centre of Seoul. So it should be a great way of like bringing art to a lot of people, which is innovation. Yes.
Pearl Lam: I remember you told me that once you bought a robot and then they built it for you with the cross and everything, and then even if you’re not there, you can speak to the audience, right?
Philip Colbert: Yes. So basically, during the pandemic, I’d been offered this whole takeover of the Saatchi Gallery, the whole ground floor, all the four galleries, which is huge space and a great slot for a big scale UK exhibitions. So I had this slot, but then it was during the pandemic, which was a crazy time, and doing a public exhibition seemed super problematic, first of all, because at any moment a lockdown could have been called. So it was. So I was like thinking about this impossibility of an exhibition in such a crazy time. And I was like, it sort of made me feel that the exhibition was like the Titanic at the bottom of the sea because you couldn’t really get there, but you could send cameras into it. So I sort of thought, well, actually it could be a really interesting dimension to explore. So I looked into telepresent robotics. I became obsessed with telepresent robotics and I later actually made a fully functioning art making robot. But at this point I was like, I was very interested in telepresence, the idea of aside the metaverse you explore in a digital dimension. But I was very interested in creating avatar that you could explore the real world in. So like another robotic self in the real world with action and agency and. Anyway, so I looked into find a company, double robotics, who were able to make me a special telepresent robot with movable claws. So it was basically like iPads on sticks, like Giacometti iPads.
Pearl Lam: Do you put a mask?
Philip Colbert: Yes. Luckily, no mask required, but
Pearl Lam: What? No mask?
Philip Colbert: What was amazing about it was basically that. So I managed to get the maximum amount of these robots I could. I think it was like 20 or 25.
Pearl Lam: Wow.
Philip Colbert: With claws. And then we had. We said there were like special lobster telepresent robots and it was like FaceTime. But you could. You were in control of yourself as well.
Pearl Lam: How wonderful.
Philip Colbert: You could go around, right? You could control yourself around the gallery and chat to people. So it was actually pretty amazing. So you could, like. There was a great artist friend of mine, Dougie Fields. And he couldn’t make the show because of COVID So you know him. And I gave him a tour of the exhibition just as a robot. And he’s very funny looking. He had amazing stuff. So it was just like really. So we felt like we were both. That was the great thing about it. If you went on a tour with someone, you felt like you were both in.
Pearl Lam: How wonderful. I love it.
Philip Colbert: It was a real, like, trip because, you know, you were, you know, you’d bump. You’d have these random things like bumping into people and random things that happen in real life, you know, which is so cool that in a way, that happened to the robotic self.
Pearl Lam: This is such a Sci-Fi movie.
Philip Colbert: So I did. I did the world’s first art opening for robots for the pandemic. And very lucky because, for example, it turned out that the day after my opening was going to be a lockdown. So if I’d had a normal exhibition, it would have been game over. A complete waste of time, completely panned. But luckily, because I’d put anchored the whole exhibition around robots, I was able to have my press view. And I had like every TV channel in there filming because it was actually something that was relevant.
Pearl Lam: Such good media.
Philip Colbert: I mean, and what was great is we ran and this because it was all quite complicated to pull it off, but we ran a very scheduled tours of. You could book a robot for the exhibition. So people could log in online, book a robot and go around the show during lockdown. And what was amazing is like I would sometimes pop in to see how things the robots were getting on. And there’d be like a whole school class from, you know, from some other part of the country all logging in, like on the robots. And, you know, like, it was just really cool that in a way,
Pearl Lam: Such a cool presentation.
Philip Colbert: Yeah. And it was actually. It really felt like. It’s hard to explain, but changing the activity in the gallery changes the gallery.
Pearl Lam: Yeah, of course it is.
Philip Colbert: It changes everything in a weird way, because it felt like another dimension.
Pearl Lam: Talking about this, let’s talk about what I want to take your thinking about today’s museum. Right? Many museum has been rejecting popular artists like yourself. But we see that now, many of these private museums or museums. Who doesn’t have enough fundings to open to invite all you or all the popular artists because you guys sells tickets, right. How are you thinking about it? What are you thinking about it?
Philip Colbert: Well, I think, you know, there’s different museums have different strategies and stuff. And like, you know, some museums have a certain type of thing they want to show and others. I’m pretty open. I don’t. I don’t get in any way upset about museums, not, you know, because I think there’s just. There’s a lot of museums out there in the world. And, you know, I recently had a show. One of my favorite museum in the world was the Archaeological Museum of Naples, which I think is beautiful. So for me, that was like a total dream. I felt like no way deserved to show my favorite museum in the world with masterpieces of antiquity. And so in a way, like, there’s so many possibilities of cool exhibitions because I really.
Pearl Lam: Recent experience we have is one of the museum was showing one of my artists, and immediately it increased the traffic of younger, younger generation because the Gen Z, or the younger children really, today they have no time even to read everything, to look, to start looking at conceptual art. But your sort of paintings, sculptures really enticed them. They could have dialogue with them. And so it immediately brought another group of visitors to the museum, which I think is fantastic.
Philip Colbert: Well, I think that’s great, definitely. And I think that, you know, I think ultimately, museums culturally, you know, obviously serve important academic function or cultural function in terms of, like, exploring concepts and ideas, important societal ideas. But also they have a function as, you know, as a place for families and, you know, to go and, like, you know, learn and explore culture and everything. And I think that accessibility and inclusion, inclusivity is very important. And I think, like, I like to think within my work, like, that’s very much at the forefront of this idea of democratic accessibility and, like, being something that a whole family can come to one of my exhibitions. Like, if the kids love my work, I’m super happy because that’s like,
Pearl Lam: Definitely will love your work. Come on.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, I’ve got two kids myself.
Pearl Lam: Yeah. And. And what do they think? What are the. What do your children think when they see your work?
Philip Colbert: Well, art is so natural to kids. They live in a world of art. You know, they’ve got. They are kids.
Pearl Lam: Do they want the lobster to be in their bed?
Philip Colbert: Yeah, well, they. They have many. They’ve managed to sneak from my studio. Lots of love. They were actually distributing them at school.
Pearl Lam: I love it. They can sell it.
Philip Colbert: Yeah, they were trading them at school.
Pearl Lam: I love it.
Philip Colbert: They actually distributed so many at school that basically every single. The teachers were all, like, having a lobster crack done. They were like, banning lobsters from the playground. But it was very sweet. Like, they’re. No, but you can learn a lot from kids because it’s amazing to see. I find it very interesting to see, you know, when kids grow up and they the things they see and the symbols that have meaning and the things that they are inspired by, it’s a very interesting reflection on our society and we’re seeing, you know, and I think and also I just think it’s very refreshing because kids have a freedom to things also, which sometimes people can lose a little bit.
Pearl Lam: So yeah, it’s interesting to see kids how and how they evolved anyway and being inspired by your, they grew up with the lobster and I love the way that they’re using lobsters for trading. And on this note, thank you, Philip.
Philip Colbert: Thank you, Pearl, for coming.
Pearl Lam: Thank you. Always a treat to have you showing us all your wonderful students and sharing with the audience.
Philip Colbert: Of course. My pleasure.
Pearl Lam: Thank you.
