Phyllida Barlow

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 877 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2021

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In episode 68 of The Great Women Artists Podcast, Katy Hessel interviews the great sculptor, PHYLLIDA BARLOW !!! [This episode is brought to you by Alighieri jewellery: www.alighieri.co.uk | use the code TGWA at checkout for 10% off!] Simultaneously colossal and intimate, precarious and triumphant, stoic and ephemeral, Phyllida Barlow’s all-engulfing sculptures, made from cement, cardboard, fabric, to chicken wire, don’t just force a redressing of sculpture in art history, but they question the limitless potentials of the versatile medium. Taking influence from her surroundings, and in turn influencing and challenging ours, they distort all sense of perspective, challenge sculptural conventions, and make us breathe, inhabit, and experience the medium in ways that no artist has done before. Full of tension and awkwardness, but also the familiarity of the everyday, for over fifty years Barlow's sculptures have questioned not only the history of the medium, but the role of monuments in modern day society. Born in Newcastle, and raised in postwar London, Barlow studied at Chelsea School of Art, and went on to complete her MA at the Slade, the latter of which she taught at for four decades, until 2009. Barlow has exhibited across the globe at the world’s most renowned museums including, the Serpentine, taking over the Tate’s Duveen Galleries, Haus de Kunst, and in 2017, represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. She is also a Royal Academician. But the reason why we are speaking with Barlow today is because she has not only just published an incredible book on her collected lectures, writings, and interviews – of which a favourite of mine is her on Eva Hesse, aptly titled, Lost for Words – but she is currently the subject of a solo presentation at London’s Highgate Cementary AND an exhibition at Hauser and Wirth, the latter of which features a large-scale ‘sculptural intervention’ consisting of over 100 brightly coloured cement posts more than 20 feet tall, forming a circular barricade, which in typical Barlow style, blocks, stunts, distorts our normal viewing space and forces us to re-situate ourselves in the galleries, resulting in new paths forged, new sight lines experienced. I hope you enjoy this episode! Further links: www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-ex…phyllida-barlow www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/digit…t-documentary www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2826-phyllida-barlow www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-bri…4-phyllida-barlow hausderkunst.de/en/exhibitions/phyllida-barlow LISTEN NOW + ENJOY!!! Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Research assistant: Viva Ruggi Artwork by @thisisaliceskinner Music by Ben Wetherfield www.thegreatwomenartists.com/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to season six of the Great Women Artist podcast.
0:05.1	In this series, I am so excited to be continuing my partnership with the brilliant Alighieri
0:10.9	Jewelry, who have been supporting the GWA podcast for the last year and a half.
0:16.3	Allegieri creates fragmented talismans of imperfection and vulnerability, which are hand cast in London's
0:22.8	Hatt and Garden with recycled metals, founded by Rosh Matani to guide her through a dark time.
0:28.7	Each piece has a story and invites you to unlock your own. I have been eagerly waiting for the
0:35.0	launch of the next Alligieri collection, and I'm so excited to say
0:38.7	it has arrived. This season, Allegieri will unlock the gates of the Inferno one piece at a time.
0:45.6	Having always been rooted in Dante's Divine Comedy, this collection will open up the Inferno
0:50.6	and give you the tools to guide you from the darkest circle of hell to a realization
0:55.5	of light and clarity. Hell is often imagined as a land of fire. However, in the final circle of the
1:02.5	inferno, ice reigns supreme. The landscape is completely frozen over and the souls are locked in.
1:08.9	There are stasis, no ability to move forward or to hope.
1:12.6	The Inferno unlocked anthology is formed of 100% recycled sterling silver to evoke this icy realm,
1:19.6	with threads of signature Alleghiari gold weaving its way through to shatter the status quo.
1:24.9	Each modern heirloom acts as a code, tool or amulet. Aligieri has transformed
1:29.8	its iconic logo, medieval and modern, into gilded, frosted and poetic daggers forming a
1:35.1	collection of strength and hope. Be the first to collect the keys to the inferno by following
1:39.9	the tale on the at Aligieri underscore Jewelry Instagram. And just for our listeners, Alighieri is offering a 10% discount across all products with the code TGWA at checkout.
1:52.2	I hope you enjoy this episode.
2:00.1	Hello everyone and welcome to the Great Woman Artist podcast with me, Katie Hessel.
2:06.3	Some of you might know me from The Great Women Artists, an Instagram account I set up in October 2015,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Katy Hessel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Katy Hessel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.