IMG 6971-001-warp- and weft-

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex.

In this assemblage of forms, Sara Barker combines numerous unexpected textures including a hand-painted landscape on steel, honeycombed resin, brass, wood and the lacquer finish used on traditional Japanese boxes. Illustrative of the artist’s enduring interest in post-minimalist treatment of materials, warp- and weft- creates a tapestry of light and shadow and examines elements that influence our understanding of aesthetics, material, language and objects. warp- and weft- challenges the boundaries between sculpture and painting, distributing equal significance to surface and structure. The work was informed by Junichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, a 1933 essay on Japanese aesthetics that commends all that is delicate, nuanced and natural in the world and suggests a state of mindfulness to beauty as being imperative to a rounded life. Central to Tanizaki’s treatise is the importance of light and shadow. Barker’s composition balances varying forms and materials, in order to create an ethereal interplay between the elements and their silhouettes. The ribbons of wood, coated in the evocative black of the lacquer box finish, have a figurative presence within the structure, capturing the directional lines of driving rain, calligraphy, and even the sweep of a kimono. Delicate and yet extremely present, warp- and weft- strikes up a relationship with the viewer in which one is invited to investigate the unique interplay between materials and forms.