- Venue
- Tate Britain
- Location
- United Kingdom
There is always an element of imagination and hope to how a piece of work will actually look in a gallery, and whether it will in reality be as imposing as intended. Phyllida Barlow must have been gratified to see that her massive sculptural structures appear threatening and lumbering, and that they just might topple over or slide on top of you.
There are other artists around today who use the height of technology to deceive our senses and make works which appear to balance impossibly, using hidden structures and smart materials, but all of Barlow’s thinking is in plain sight and easy to understand – wooden stacks and materials suspended by tape.
The rather grand context of Tate Britain halls make an apt setting for these monoliths, firstly by the interesting contrasts, and also because of the galleries of context nearby. One piece in particular looks like what might be in the back room of Tony Cragg’s studio where he made his neat and ordered Stack of similar materials. Barlow’s work takes on its own shape, and speaks of an industrial past, a structure of ideas built on materials and reality, at a scale that at once dwarfs humanity while showing what human endeavour is capable of. The colour palette also suggests what would now be called retro.
Surely the most successful pieces are the sculptural formed shapes which hang like some pudendum or Sword of Damocles over the viewer’s head. Bound rounded shapes suggest magnified or alien molecules. The ambiguity lies in suggesting but not signposting what these forms might be.
Spilling boxes as large as shipping containers spew out foam and tape and mess overhead, and all that holds everything up is paint splattered wooden slats and frames, like the chaos of the last day at art school.
I do however question the painting on the boards and containers. They are roughly painted as is to suggest they are found and spontaneous, but look to me like that faux style of painting to make a thing look aged. Perhaps that was deliberate, but to me it was a barrier to believing the authenticity and foundness of them.
