Brink is the title given by the British artist Phyllida Barlow to her first solo exhibition on the continent. Barlow, winner of the Kunstpreis Aachen this year, works mostly in the medium of sculpture. Since the 1960s, the artist, who was born in 1944 in Newcastle, has been developing expansive, large-format sculptures. Her favoured materials all have the aesthetics of rawness and simplicity: plaster, cement, plastic, wood and textiles, for example.
For her exhibition in Aachen, Barlow has created seven new sculptures that allude to social phenomena as well as to art history.
Two of the works are installed on the glass roof of the Forum’s central hall. They can only be viewed from inside the hall. The 8-meter-high sad monument in the Lichtturm (Light Tower) counterpoints the two vertical scrolls by Jenny Holzer that are permanent exhibits there. The piece has belonged to the Ludwig Forum’s collection since 2012. The four other pieces are set up in the atrium of the exhibition hall. Piano alludes to Joseph Beuys’ Plight, a project that he put on show in Great Britain shortly before he died in 1985.
Curated by: Dr. Brigitte Franzen
The jury of the Kunstpreis Aachen 2012: Marion Ackermann (Kunstsammlung NRW (Art Collection NRW), Düsseldorf), Chris Dercon (Tate Modern, London), Brigitte Franzen (Ludwig Forum, Aachen), Ernst Höhler (Verein der Freunde des Ludwig Forum (Friends of the Ludwig Forum)) and Dirk Snauwaert (Wiels Centrum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Brussels).
Art Prize Aachen 2012: Phyllida Barlow, Installation Views
Photos: Carl Brunn / Ludwig Forum Aachen
