Phyllida Barlow - Royal Academy Exhibition

Phyllida Barlow

"Culd-De-Sac"

Space Changing Exhibition at the Royal Academy

Barlow's sculptures come across straight away as an interrogation of space. The pieces are not meant to make you feel comfortable, but rather make you question your own position within their space. She has cheerfully painted and draped loose canvas, so they hang and look almost like costume ghosts. They sharply contrast the more serious and morbid slab of concrete suspended above them.

There is a definite element of theater to her work. There are almost silly or impossible seeming acts of balance here, with large heavy elements supported by weaker spindly bits. This strikes me as being actually humorous at times. 

One of the rooms you enter and are forced into a sort of horseshoe-like space, leaving you question the correct way to exit. I am guessing this is in reference to the name of the exhibition, which make the viewer question the particular significance of a "cul-de-sac" to the artist. It akes on an unsettling quality.