For a long time, sculpture as a commodity was not on the agenda for me at all, and therefore this idea of staging and the theatricality of the experience were such a contrast to the actual making of the work, which is private and has its shambolic moments. Then when the work is actually delivered to the site, it’s suddenly as though the performance has begun, and these new tensions arise. It’s as if the work actually begins when it gets to the space and my relationship to and memories of the space will then be put to the test. The script gets thrown away and a whole new generative process of making begins. It’s not so much about placing an object and revering that object’s placement as it is about its relationship to space. Is the space dominant or is the object dominant; does the space become as much an object as the object itself? There are so many issues that begin to stake their claim in how this performance is going to take shape. — Phyllida Barlow*
On the occasion of her new show in Los Angeles, Barlow will join artist and architect Sharon Johnston for an in-person conversation at Hauser & Wirth. Artist and writer Lindsay Preston Zappas will moderate.
See links below for details.
PHYLLIDA BARLOW and SHARON JOHNSTON IN CONVERSATION
Friday, February 18, at 11 am
Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
901 East 3rd Street, downtown Los Angeles
February 17–May 8
Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
*Phyllida Barlow, “Interview with Robert Enright” (2018), in Phyllida Barlow: Collected Lectures, Writings, and Interviews, edited by Sara Harrison (Zürich: Hauser & Wirth, 2021), 244–245.
From top: Phyllida Barlow, untitled: 100banners (detail), 2015, timber, plywood, tape, wadding, fabric, paint, sand, plastic, cement, plaster, Phyllida Barlow: frontier, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2021, installation view photograph by Maximilian Geuter, © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Haus der Kunst; Phyllida Barlow, untitled: skirt i, 2019-2020, timber, wire netting, polystyrene, scrim, plaster, paint, cement, PVA, steel, © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, photograph © 2020 Alex Delfanne, all rights reserved; Phyllida Barlow, untitled: catchers (detail), 2020, cement, scrim, steel, Phyllida Barlow: frontier, Haus der Kunst, installation view photograph by Geuter, © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Haus der Kunst; Phyllida Barlow, untitled: attic 2 (detail), 2019, Hessian scrim, PVA, plaster, plywood, steel, timber, © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, photograph © 2020 Delfanne, all rights reserved; Phyllida Barlow: Collected Lectures, Writings, and Interviews, cover art: film still from Phyllida, directed by Cosima Spender, cover image courtesy and © Hauser & Wirth; Phyllida Barlow in her studio, 2018, photograph by Cat Garcia, © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth; Sharon Johnston, photograph courtesy and © Johnston Marklee; Phyllida Barlow, untitled: blocksonstilts (detail), 2018–2019, Hessian scrim, plaster, polystyrene, spray paint, timber, steel, Phyllida Barlow: frontier, Haus der Kunst, installation view photograph by Geuter, © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Haus der Kunst; Phyllida Barlow, Undercover 2 (installation view detail), 2020, timber, plywood, cement, scrim, plaster, polyurethane foam, paint, PVA, calico, steel, Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging—16 Women Artists from around the World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, © Phyllida Barlow, courtesy the artist and Mori Art Museum.
