‘I want the work to be traversed in a way that your memory of it is tested, so that you keep forgetting what you’ve seen. I think that is the nature of sculpture – not something that can be held as a whole image in your head, only as fragments. I also want the space between and above and below the work to become energised in the galleries. The spaces, the silences in between, are as much a component of the work as the thing itself.’
In 1999, interested in materials and anti-industrial gestures, I visited Richard Salmon Gallery in London to see the exhibition ‘Furniture’: I was convinced that artists invariably tell us more than designers do about the everyday things of the world.
Discover how Phyllida Barlow created her ambitious installation for the British Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. The exhibition, entitled 'folly', playfully challenges us to explore our own understanding of sculpture. Commissioned by the British Council, Barlow has transformed everyday materials, such as timber, concrete and fabric, into bold sculptures that infiltrate the entire building, reaching up to the roof and even spilling outside.
Phyllida Barlow, one of the UK’s most prolific sculptors, creates large-scale installations that involve a process of crushing, wrapping, stretching, stacking, and rolling.
'All our lives are about constantly losing. The moment is always disappearing, like sand between our fingers. So what is it, we are actually left with?,' asks British sculptor Phyllida Barlow.
