Phyllida Barlow: cul-de-sac
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
23 February – 23 June 2019
After nearly two months without posting anything here, I’m finally back. I do have a good excuse for being so quiet since January: my son Samuel was born on 9 February, and I’ve been wonderfully busy enjoying his company ever since.
Nevertheless, there is a remarkable art show in London that I’ve been eager to share with you. British sculptor Phyllida Barlow is currently exhibiting at the contemporary galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts, where her show will run until the end of spring. The art berries visited the exhibition, and I’m sharing it with you here so you don’t miss one of the best art experiences in London this season.
The photographs you’ll see below were taken, as usual, on an iPhone. We interacted with the artworks directly, bringing you an intimate and personal perspective on the pieces that struck us the most.
Upon entering the gallery, we encountered two monumental sculptures. One is a towering vertical structure made of layered, colourful canvases — a playful, intriguing piece that captures your attention the moment you step into the space. In the photos below, you can see The art blackberry standing beside it, almost as if engaged in conversation with a vibrant crowd of characters.
As we moved through the exhibition, another striking sculpture appeared. It reminded me of an amphitheatre: a semicircular seating structure supported by a tangle of beams extending in every direction. You can see how our Guest Art Berry, Irene, merges with the sculpture, becoming part of its shifting geometry and contributing to that perception.
Finally, a series of images shows The art blackberry surrounded by a forest of inclined beams. In these pictures, her fragility is heightened by the looming, somewhat menacing structures above her.
Created in February, the exhibition presents Barlow’s interpretation of a residential cul-de-sac. By closing the exit door in the final room, she compels visitors to turn back and re-encounter each sculpture from the opposite direction, shifting their relationship with the works. She constructs forests of seemingly precarious structures and uses them to push into the full height of the galleries — beams, blocks and canvases rising overhead in a choreography of tension and mass.
Thresholds, Barlow has said, are fascinating places — points of passage from one space to another. Always seeking the unexpected, she allows the work to lead her on a journey rather than deciding that journey in advance.
Her inspiration comes from the everyday — from farms, industrial estates, and ordinary urban spaces. Accordingly, she uses commonplace materials like plywood, expanding foam, polystyrene, plaster, cement, plastic piping, Polyfilla, and tape, urging us to look at them anew. These materials surround us so constantly that we barely notice them, until her sculptures force us to really see them.
Barlow studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960–1963) and the Slade School of Art (1963–1966). She later taught at both institutions and served as Professor of Fine Art and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Slade until 2009.
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