The Barry Phipps Archive is a personal database created by the artist, indexing artworks made from the age of 3 to the present.
Think of this space as a private library with a small viewing table of hand-selected works presented by Barry in a non-cluttered focused space.
Think of a curated database as a photograph. A photographer doesn’t invent anything, but chooses what to place within the frame, and what to leave out. All art is preexistence arranged persuasively.
ON DISPLAY
A boutique array of photography books from his collection.
The home page defaults to his 2018 book Between Gravity and What Cheer: Iowa Photographs. The Photography Books dropdown menu contains two more: Driving a Table Down and West by Northwest: 26 sequential landscapes.
Remember: No food or drinks on the table, please.
Please visit Barry’s business The Barry Phipps Shop for contact and information regarding his archival services.
THE LONG VIEW
For now, I am the curator of this archive. While I am alive, I decide what comes out of the stacks and onto the viewing table. Much of the archive remains deliberately held in reserve.
The long-term intention is different. I am building and organizing the archive so that, after my lifetime, it can eventually be opened more fully to the public—to be explored, studied, interpreted, or simply wandered through by anyone who finds a use for it.
My intention is to establish the Barry Phipps Foundation as a modest means of carrying this work forward: maintaining the digital archive, keeping it accessible, and providing for its stewardship beyond my lifetime. It does not need to preserve everything forever. It simply needs to give the archive a life beyond mine.
I cannot control what the work will mean then. I can only leave behind the clearest record I can.
Until then, I choose what goes on the table.