Phyllida Barlow
In episode 68 of The Great Women Artists Podcast, Katy Hessel interviews the great sculptor, PHYLLIDA BARLOW !!!\n\n[This episode is brought to you by Alighieri jewellery: www.alighieri.co.uk | use the code TGWA at checkout for 10% off!]\n\nSimultaneously colossal and intimate, precarious and triumphant, stoic and ephemeral, Phyllida Barlow\u2019s all-engulfing sculptures, made from cement, cardboard, fabric, to chicken wire, don\u2019t 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.\n\nFull 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.\n\nBorn 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\u2019s most renowned museums including, the Serpentine, taking over the Tate\u2019s Duveen Galleries, Haus de Kunst, and in 2017, represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. She is also a Royal Academician.\n\nBut 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 \u2013 of which a favourite of mine is her on Eva Hesse, aptly titled, Lost for Words \u2013 but she is currently the subject of a solo presentation at London\u2019s Highgate Cementary AND an exhibition at Hauser and Wirth, the latter of which features a large-scale \u2018sculptural intervention\u2019 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.\n\nI hope you enjoy this episode!\n\nFurther links: \nwww.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-ex\u2026phyllida-barlow\nwww.royalacademy.org.uk/article/digit\u2026t-documentary\nwww.hauserwirth.com/artists/2826-phyllida-barlow\nwww.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-bri\u20264-phyllida-barlow\nhausderkunst.de/en/exhibitions/phyllida-barlow\n\nLISTEN NOW + ENJOY!!!\n\nFollow us:\nKaty Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel\nSound editing by Nada Smiljanic\nResearch assistant: Viva Ruggi \nArtwork by @thisisaliceskinner\nMusic by Ben Wetherfield\nwww.thegreatwomenartists.com/