Phyllida Barrow : GIG

Phyllida Barlow‘s (b. 1944, Newcastle upon Tyne) latest exhibition GIG, comprises an entirely new body of work created in response to the architecture and surrounding landscape of Hauser & Wirth Somerset.

Occupying the 18th-century Threshing Barn, adjoining farm buildings, outdoor spaces andone of the new galleries, Barlow’s dense and exuberant sequence of installations celebrates the rejuvenation of Durslade Farm that lay derelict and unoccupied prior to its recent conversion into an arts centre.

The artist has focused on the physical experience of handling materials, which she transforms through layering, accumulation and juxtaposition. Barlow’s sculptural practice is grounded in an anti-monumental tradition and is concerned with the relationship between objects and the space that surrounds.

The installations are shown throughout the gallery spaces and garden, where outdoors in the Piggery, ‘untitled: megaphone’ towers six metres high, rising above the roof line as if to announce the building’s new purpose. Nearby stacks of vibrantly painted chairs suggest an absent audience, one that has yet to arrive and a performance that has yet to begin.