Nestled in the woodland, quarry brings together three sculptural objects made from concrete and steel: two trunk-like columns that rise from the landscape and a mountainous flight of ruined steps.

quarry is Phyllida Barlow’s first permanent outdoor artwork. Featuring Barlow’s signature textural surfaces, quarry combines materials and structures that evoke natural growth, industrial materials, and elements of decay or ruination. The two rising columns each culminate in their own ‘sky frame’, an industrial-type structure that looms over the canopy, mimicking the oak and beech trees that grow throughout Jupiter Artland’s estate.

Despite its enormous scale, the work has an anti-monumental feel: made of Barlow’s signature materials, and with her sense of improvisation, playfulness and tactile surfaces. The work brings to the fore the post-industrial nature of what might at first appear as an idyllic landscape.

‘The name Jupiter Artland breaks all the rules. And this is cause for celebration. Without doubt, the name of this exceptional creative endeavour forewarns the audience that what they are about to experience is by no means conventional or orthodox. For artists and public alike, there will be the delight of being surprised, thrilled, perplexed, moved and intrigued.’ Phyllida Barlow

Biography

Phyllida Barlow (b.1944, Newcastle upon Tyne, d.2023, London) studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960–3) and the Slade School of Art (1963–6). After joining the staff in the 1980s, Barlow taught at the Slade School of Art for more than twenty years before retiring in 2009, becoming Emerita Professor of Fine Art. For almost 60 years, Barlow took inspiration from her surroundings to create imposing installations that can be at once menacing and playful. She created large-scale yet anti-monumental sculptures from inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim, plaster and cement. These constructions were often painted in industrial or vibrant colors, the seams of their construction left at times visible, revealing the means of their making.

Barlow exhibited extensively across institutions internationally and in 2017 represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. Important solo exhibitions include act at Highgate Cemetery, London (2021); cul-de-sac, The Royal Academy, London (2019); ARTIST ROOMS: Phyllida Barlow, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2017); demo, Kunsthalle Zürich (2016); tryst, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX (2015); set, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2015); dock, Duveen Commission at Tate Britain, London (2014); GIG, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset (2014); HOARD, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL (2014); scree, Des Moines Art Center, IA (2013); … later, Hauser & Wirth, New York (2012); siege, New Museum, New York (2012); BRINK, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany (2012); Bad Copies, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2012); RIG, Hauser & Wirth, London (2011); Cast, Kunstverein Nürnberg (2011).

In 2011 Barlow became a Royal Academician and in 2015 she was made a CBE for her services to the arts in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours. In 2012 Barlow received the Aachen Art Prize and the Award for the Most Significant Contribution to the Development of Contemporary Art at The First International Kyiv Biennale, Ukraine. Barlow represented Great Britain at La Biennale di Venezia 2017 with a major solo show in the British Pavilion.