Phyllida Barlow Peninsula

Phyllida Barlow to create new works for Level 4 art space. The resulting exhibition will comprise of nine sculptures, some of considerable size and others of a more intimate, personal scale. The gallerywill be obstructed by Barrier, 2004, a 4 metres high and 13 metre long construction whose intricate and complex structure is made up of crude daubed and painted timbers, supporting a precariously fastened number of redpainted plywood sheets. The whole appears to be on the point of dangerous collapse. Banner 2004, is a huge work which will dominate the back of the gallery. The work’s concrete feet anchor timbers which support at aheight of 6 metres, a bulky upper section which is draped and layered in felt and foam. Underneath, the work offers some kind of shelter, but from a distance it appears monstrous, and as with many of Barlow’s workssuggests the possibility of sudden, loud and aggressive movement.

Barlow makes large scale sculpture from low-tec, mundane materials like rubber, tarpaulin, polythene, bitumen,concrete, paint, aluminium foil, rags and plaster. The construction of the works is informed by the sculptural possibilities of form, mass, volume, space and scale. For Barlow, these materials have the advantage of beingcheap and readily available, but more importantly they lack the gravitas and status of traditional sculptural materials of stone and metal. The works are often daubed and splattered in paint, camouflaging the surfaces andhomogenising the works various materials. The title of the show, Peninsula, reflects some of the physical and geographical characteristics of the Level 4 gallery space, and its relationship to the city and in turn, the city’srelationship to the rest of the country. It might also be seen as a metaphor for personal and political relationships and notions of independence and reliance.

Almost all of Phyllida Barlow’s sculptures no longer exist except as an image in a photograph. Once shown, they are dismantled and destroyed and the materials are often used to make new works, making her exhibitions intohere-and-now encounters that are impossible to repeat. The unwillingness of the artist to preserve past works gives a fresh sense of freedom and experimentation to each new work created. Barlow does not use bronze or stone ortechniques of carving or casting to produce her work and is acutely aware of the expectations inherent in these materials and processes. Her work is an ongoing rejection of these traditions and their associations and can beseen instead, as an ongoing process of raising questions about what exactly sculpture is.

Phyllida Barlow was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1944. She trained at Chelsea College of Art & Design andthe Slade School of Fine Art in London. Barlow is currently Professor of Fine Art and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Slade School of Fine Art. Previous exhibitions include Untitled (Dallas) 2003, University of Texas atDallas Visual Art Gallery, 2003; New Sculpture, Richard Salmon Gallery, London, 2002; Fête, Station, Phoenix Wharf, Bristol, 2002; View, Mile End Park Sculpture Exhibition, Tower Hamlets, London, 2001; after dark-intoblack, British Art Show 5, 2000-2001; Out of Place, Chapter, Cardiff, 1998; Not, Nothing, Nowhere, Deptford, London, 1998; O Pas Là, Surprising Spaces, Lieu d’Art Contemporain, Sigean, 1999; Furniture, Richard Salmon,London, 1999; Dumb-founded, Battersea Arts Centre, London, 1999 and EAST International, Norwich 1997.

A new publication about Phyllida Barlow’s work entitled Objects For... And Other Things, is available from theBALTIC shop and a book about the making of Peninsula at BALTIC will be published towards the end of January.

Pressetext

Phyllida Barlow "Peninsula"
Level 4