Security Landscapes is an exhibition of new work by Sarah Nicole Phillips; with collages made from discarded, patterned envelopes. These collages conflate imagery of plant life with the hard edges, linear repetition and angles suggestive of man-made order.

Security envelopes, as they are often called, obscure the contents of the envelope so that one cannot read what is inside, even when held up to a light. The cheap, offset-printed patterns create a scrim that serves as a decorative backdrop to our everyday bureaucratic tangles. The shapes of flora in these collages echo the security envelope’s intended use as camouflage for private documents like checks and bank statements. Vines, fungus and grasses twist and seep out of cellophane windows suggesting an indifference to the veneer of professionalism that official-looking paperwork can convey. These images offer dystopian landscapes at a time when people are feeling increasingly betrayed by corporations and financial institutions, and unable to keep up with the daily onslaught of bills, contracts and fees.

This exhibition is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. (BAC).