{"id":686831,"date":"2026-05-22T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/686831\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:53:09","slug":"phyllida-barlow-disruptor-review-sexy-latex-and-gobs-of-gum-as-a-stately-home-gets-trashed-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/686831\/","title":{"rendered":"Phyllida Barlow: Disruptor review \u2013 sexy latex and gobs of gum as a stately home gets trashed | Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wolterton Hall is folded so deeply into the countryside of the Bure Valley that you can\u2019t even see the grand Palladian mansion when you enter the gates to the estate. This was once one of the four power houses of Norfolk, built by Thomas Ripley for Horatio Walpole. Inside, Wolterton is dripping in 18th-century treasures, furniture, then-fashionable Belgian tapestries, fusty old portraits of important types \u2013 but now also, knobbly bodily things, strange almost familiar shapes stuck to walls and chucked down the stairs, as if someone\u2013 namely Phyllida Barlow<\/a> \u2013 had come in and trashed the place.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a difficult thing to know what to do with these former country stately homes. Many have adopted a contemporary art programme as a way of challenging their history and bringing in new visitors. Simon Oldfield \u2013 Wolterton\u2019s artistic director, brought in by the new owners, the Ellis family, two years ago \u2013 has done more than that. He has reinvented the space, making room for new ideas to take over. There\u2019s no better artist for that than Barlow, whose works seem to take on a life of their own wherever they go. Her exhibition begins at the entrance, where the explosive installation Untitled: Stacked Chairs greets you. The cacophony of red plywood chairs feels like a statement about throwing things out and starting again. It\u2019s rebellious, disruptive and direct.<\/p>\n

Up the elegant staircase, there\u2019s a room dedicated to small-scale Barlow sculptures, framed by immense views to the estate. There\u2019s a rare outing for an early work called Loaf \u2013 yes, it resembles a loaf of bread but it\u2019s tar-black glass and paper coated with latex. It is a perfect example of Barlow\u2019s approach to reshaping the everyday with unconventional materials. It\u2019s maybe even a little bit sexy. More recent wall sculptures cobbled together with cement, hessian scrim, with plaster and other bits like rope chucked in look like big gobs of bubblegum stuck rudely to the wall, their pockmarked surfaces interrupting the space.<\/p>\n

Several knobbly towers \u2026 installation, part of Phyllida Barlow: Disruptor, Wolterton, 2026. Photograph: Eva Herzog courtesy of Wolterton\/\u00a9 Phyllida Barlow Estate<\/p>\n

On plinths are several knobbly towers, creating a kind of cyborgian forest that echoes nature outside \u2013 but not quite. They\u2019re messy, sloppy, fashioned with energy and pace. The whole room reverberates with Barlow\u2019s irreverent punk attitude, the cheapness of her materials \u2013 there\u2019s cardboard, foam, plaster, plywood and plastic \u2013 contrasting with the opulence of the house.<\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Barlow often put works in random rural places where few people might see them (though I\u2019m told visitor numbers are good at Wolterton). So this all feels very her. The artist, who died in 2023, thought of her works as \u201cmonuments to impermanence\u201d, and that has a charge in a place whose architecture expresses an abiding belief in legacy. Barlow\u2019s work is also about what materials communicate. The house says, I am here, I\u2019m important \u2013 Barlow says, everything is precarious, nothing goes as planned. It\u2019s electric and a bit cheeky too.<\/p>\n

Oldfield\u2019s vision for Wolterton feels different to those of other similar grand estates. His team hasn\u2019t been afraid to strip out some of the history \u2013 whole rooms of historic family portraits are gone (into storage). The exhibition of Barlow continues into one such room, the portrait gallery, now filled with Barlow\u2019s drawings from the 1970s to the early 2010s. They\u2019re cartoonish abstractions, sketches for sculptures, dynamic forms that bounce off the walls. And those walls have been stripped of their wallpaper, revealing original pencil markings, measurements, drawings and notes left on them by builders centuries ago. It creates a different kind of conversation with history \u2013 Barlow and the 18th-century labourers having a chat about forms and how to position things.<\/p>\n

On my way to the final Barlow piece, I sidestep into a concurrent, smaller solo show by Daisy Parris, Fist Full of Dreams. It\u2019s a suite of new paintings inspired by a visit to Wolterton in February, and a reconfiguration of a five-metre-long abstract textile piece, its knotted and sewn surface a landscape of its own. Parris\u2019s works respond more directly to Wolterton and its alteration \u2013 since the artist was here and experienced them \u2013 but they feel more emotionally than materially reactive. The poems that work their way into the paintings call up images of fading winter light, flowers struggling to bloom, that angst and brooding of deep winter contrasting with the pinky, orangey bright drips and striations of Parris\u2019s painting.<\/p>\n

Deliberately jarring \u2026 PRANK: jinx, part of Phyllida Barlow: Disruptor, Wolterton, 2026. Photograph: Eva Herzog courtesy of Wolterton\/\u00a9 Phyllida Barlow Estate<\/p>\n

Barlow: Disruptor ends outside with the sculpture PRANK: jinx, a teetering stack of her rusty old studio work tables, with her trademark rabbit ears on top. The work was part of a late series Barlow produced, one of her last bodies of work \u2013 wonky and ungainly, it was her riposte to what public monuments and artworks could be. A lot of thought and effort went into its position here, but it doesn\u2019t do a lot for me \u2013 I\u2019ve never especially liked Barlow\u2019s bunny ears, a motif she played with since the 1990s. At least it continues the sense of tension, adding something industrial to a sublime Romantic landscape, to deliberately jarring effect. Not everything has to be harmonious. And these historical heritage places can be reborn, with imagination, wit and charm.<\/p>\n

Phyllida Barlow: Disruptor is at Wolterton, north Norfolk, until 31 October<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wolterton Hall is folded so deeply into the countryside of the Bure Valley that you can\u2019t even see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-686831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}