Caligo. A photo sculpture book (EDT OF 20)

Gareth Phillips
Caligo. A photo sculpture book (EDT OF 20)

Photographs: Gareth Philips

Text: Gareth Philips

Publisher: Selfpublished

Year: 2025

Price: 600 €

Comments: Hardcover, housed in a black box, 52 x 80 cm, Aluminium Dibond pages printed on both sides. Images printed directly onto the surface. Pages bound with black binding fabric. (Length: Open 80cm / Closed 21.5cm. Width: Open 52cm / Closed 52cm) Limited edition of 20 copies. Handcrafted black fabric box, embossed text, interior platforms of various sizes serving as support for the photobook (55 x 24,5 cm). Limited edition of 20, signed.

Reflecting on the future of humanity is a daunting undertaking.
Our continued exploitation of the environment and its
resources is a cause for deep concern. This concern
was the driving force behind the creation of this work of art.
Referencing environmental consequences,
mortality, colonialism and religion, this sculpture
photobook tells the fictional story of a group of humans fleeing
a climate catastrophe and seeking asylum on an extraterrestrial Eden
named Caligo.
It is an imaginary planet, untouched by human presence,
lush and wild. A potential refuge for humanity after
its own climate catastrophe. But it is also the dark and
threatening cloud that will always pursue it.

Created on New Zealand's South Island, this work highlights
how humanity only recognises the majesty of an
unspoilt environment after it has been destroyed. Although some
people strive to preserve our shared environment, only the
wealthiest have control over it. It is inevitable that a privileged elite
will one day colonise a planet like Caligo.
Will humanity – or rather this elite – learn from the
blatant mistakes already made in managing
the Earth's environment? Or will it continue to act like
a swarm of locusts, exploiting and destroying a new
abundance that is still untouched?
In any case, all that would remain of Earth would be the archive
of what it once was, and the Caligo photobook sculpture is my
contribution to that memory.