Phyllida Barlow's Punk Show Takes Over Wolterton Hall
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- Wolterton Hall now hosts a Phyllida Barlow exhibition that juxtaposes the 18th‑century mansion’s opulent interiors with the artist’s punk‑style installations, such as the red‑plywood “Untitled: Stacked Chairs” at the entrance.
- Simon Oldfield, artistic director appointed by the Ellis family, has removed historic family portraits to storage and stripped wallpaper in a portrait gallery to display Barlow’s 1970s‑2010s drawings, creating a dialogue between the house’s past and the artist’s work.
- Phyllida Barlow’s early work “Loaf”, a tar‑black glass and latex piece resembling a loaf of bread, is shown alongside recent wall sculptures made of cement, hessian, plaster, rope, and other “cheap” materials that contrast with the mansion’s grandeur.
- Phyllida Barlow’s final piece “PRANK: jinx”, a teetering stack of rusty studio tables topped with her trademark rabbit ears, concludes the exhibition, embodying her “monuments to impermanence” and challenging conventional public monuments.
- Daisy Parris presents a concurrent solo show “Fist Full of Dreams” featuring paintings and a reconfigured five‑metre‑long textile inspired by Wolterton, offering an emotionally reactive response to the estate’s alteration.
- Wolterton Hall exhibition has attracted good visitor numbers despite Barlow’s habit of placing works in remote rural sites, indicating public interest in the contrast between contemporary punk art and historic heritage.
Why it matters: The exhibition gives the Ellis‑owned Wolterton Hall a fresh revenue stream and boosts visitor numbers, while the house sacrifices its original portraits and interior finishes to make space for Barlow’s punk installations, shifting the estate’s narrative from static heritage to active contemporary art.
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