Phillip George
SECRET IKONS
MACEDONIAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Despite appearances, Phillip George's images of the Pacific Ocean coastline are far from conventional travel photographs (Australia, 1956) Half-glimpsed in rock pools beneath the blue water waver the calm faces of Greek icons, while ranks of Byzantine saints appear magically on cliff faces. In the Orthodox tradition, certain icons and depictions of saints said to be of divine origin are known as acheiropoita, "not made by human hands"; these, it seems, have chosen to manifest themselves on the far side of the world. "Is it a testament to our collective blindness that we have missed them for so long?", wondered the critic Nikos Papastergiadis.
