Object for a piano 1999

Phyllida Barlow’s, ‘Object for a piano’ uses found materials to create new forms and unexpected encounters. Barlow emerged as an artist in Britain during a time of significant social and cultural change. The shifting landscapes of postwar Britain influenced her interest in the everyday and the discarded. Barlow often subverts traditional ideas of sculpture and challenges the typical expectations of materials and forms. Barlow once said that she tries to work with materials "in their most readily available and least prepossessing ways". The use of inexpensive materials relates to the socio-economic contexts of her artistic development, a reflection of the realities of working-class life in postwar Britain. The piano appears to be restrained or even suffocated by the materials surrounding it, perhaps questioning traditional gender roles through the lens of the domestic space, and creating a disquieting emotional landscape. 'Object for a piano' is more than just a composition; it's an assertion of the overlooked and the undervalued, rendered visible and poignant.