Phil Collins
my heart's in my hand, and my hand is pierced, and my hand's in the bag, and the bag is shut, and my heart is caught, 2013

Sound installation and collaborative project with GULLIVER survival station for the homeless in Cologne. Listening booths, vinyl records, turntables, sound
Overall dimension variable


Since the late 1990s, Collins’ diverse practice has addressed the act of image-making itself, reflecting on the status of the individual and the collective in today’s media-dominated society. Characteristic of the artist’s approach is a close engagement with place and communities, which over the years have included disco-dancing Palestinians, fans of The Smiths across three continents, the youth of Baghdad, and teachers of Marxism-Leninism in the former German Democratic Republic. The projects are often initiated through public announcements and structured as situations predicated on high emotional stakes. Rather than static portraits, the works resulting from these encounters articulate the nuances of relations embedded in the aesthetic regimes and economies that define our everyday existence, from news and politics to entertainment and shopping. Throughout, Collins’ work upholds his commitment to myriad forms of experience across the social spectrum, and furthers his interest in the contradictory impulses of intimacy and desire within the public sphere. 





The artist’s installations sometimes recall film or stage sets – frames that allow for affective encounters between viewer and subject, as well as amongst visitors themselves. Six specially designed listening booths house Collins’ most recent work, my heart’s in my hand, and my hand is pierced, and my hand’s in the bag, and the bag is shut, and my heart is caught, a project conceived in collaboration with guests of a survival station for the homeless in Cologne. There, Collins installed a phone booth with a free line that anyone could use for unlimited local and international calls on the agreement that the conversations would be recorded and then anonymized. The selected material was posted to a group of musicians, including David Sylvian, Scritti Politti, Lætitia Sadier, Maria Minerva and Damon & Naomi, among others, who used these recordings as source material to produce original songs presented here inside the booths as 7” vinyl records. The installation evokes the transformative potential of pop music, its ability to create and counter distance and speak to the contemporary moment. Having worked for a homeless magazine in the 1990s, Collins has a long-standing interest in issues relating to these communities. Bringing to the fore the lyrical and narrative potential of the human voice when it stands in for subjects of city life who are purposely ignored and routinely overlooked, he dramatizes the moment of communication as an intimate and ambivalent exchange. 






*1970 in Runcorn, United Kingdom | Living and working in Berlin and Cologne, Germany