Phillips is a trumpet player, composer and artist. Ainsley is an artist working in video and sound. They work collaboratively to produce video and performance work that brings art and music together.
Phillips was raised in the Lake District, surrounded by beauty and creativity. Encouraged at school in art, music and drama, Phillips chose the jazz path. He spent five years in the Coldstream Guards band and was musically educated at Kneller Hall, studying under Dennis Clift. Since 2013 Phillips has been collaborating with artist Emma Ainsley, making darkly humorous songs and videos.
Ainsley makes videos which are both intensely silly and dead serious, at turns laugh out loud funny and positively disquieting. Born in Devon and trained in London – at Chelsea art college, she was also influenced by many years working in care environments, her work embraces a love of vulnerable, intimate connection with strangers, and the painful, dark humour found in adversity. Working collaboratively with musician John Phillips, she produces objects to form costumes for performance to camera, playfully seeking to meld art and music both as practices and as approaches to making.
