Sculpting Lives is a podcast series written and presented by Jo Baring (https://www.jobaring.com/about) (Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art) and Sarah Victoria Turner (https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/about/people/sarah-victoria-turner) (Deputy Director at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London).
Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Phyllida Barlow and Rana Begum – some of the most globally well-known British artists are women sculptors. Conversely, the profession and practice of sculpture was seen by many throughout the twentieth century (and before) to be very much a man’s world. Often using heavy and hard materials, sculpture was not typically viewed as suitable for women artists. Series one explores the lives and careers of these five women who worked (and are still working) against these preconceptions, forging successful careers and contributing in groundbreaking ways to the histories of sculpture and art. Series two features episodes on Dora Gordine, Gertrude Hermes, Veronica Ryan, Alison Wilding and Cathie Pilkington. At a moment when public sculpture is the subject of contentious debate, the final episode of the second series focuses on questions of gender, public sculpture and display, and explores women’s representation – both as subjects and artists – in our public spaces and exhibitions.
Each episode is recorded in places that are significant for the women sculptors featured – their studios, as well as galleries and public places where their work is on display – and includes new interviews with curators, friends, family and the artists themselves, creating intimate soundscapes of their private and public worlds.
The @SculptingLives Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sculptinglives) feed contains more information about the podcast and the artists and artworks featured in it.
Written and hosted by: Jo Baring and Sarah Turner
Produced by: Clare Lynch
Research by: Isabelle Mooney (Series One) & Chloe Nahum (Series Two)
Music by: Pauline Oliveros, [Silence] (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pauline_Oliveros/EASY_NOT_EASY_Festival_Oct_8_2010/Silence_1082010)
Visual identity by: Vanessa Fowler-Kendall
This podcast has been made possible through support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
We are also extremely grateful to Art UK (https://artuk.org/) and National Life Stories: Artists' Lives (British Library) (https://www.bl.uk/projects/national-life-stories-artists-lives) .
All content for Sculpting Lives is the property of Jo Baring and Sarah Turner and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Sculpting Lives is a podcast series written and presented by Jo Baring (https://www.jobaring.com/about) (Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art) and Sarah Victoria Turner (https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/about/people/sarah-victoria-turner) (Deputy Director at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London).
Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Phyllida Barlow and Rana Begum – some of the most globally well-known British artists are women sculptors. Conversely, the profession and practice of sculpture was seen by many throughout the twentieth century (and before) to be very much a man’s world. Often using heavy and hard materials, sculpture was not typically viewed as suitable for women artists. Series one explores the lives and careers of these five women who worked (and are still working) against these preconceptions, forging successful careers and contributing in groundbreaking ways to the histories of sculpture and art. Series two features episodes on Dora Gordine, Gertrude Hermes, Veronica Ryan, Alison Wilding and Cathie Pilkington. At a moment when public sculpture is the subject of contentious debate, the final episode of the second series focuses on questions of gender, public sculpture and display, and explores women’s representation – both as subjects and artists – in our public spaces and exhibitions.
Each episode is recorded in places that are significant for the women sculptors featured – their studios, as well as galleries and public places where their work is on display – and includes new interviews with curators, friends, family and the artists themselves, creating intimate soundscapes of their private and public worlds.
The @SculptingLives Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sculptinglives) feed contains more information about the podcast and the artists and artworks featured in it.
Written and hosted by: Jo Baring and Sarah Turner
Produced by: Clare Lynch
Research by: Isabelle Mooney (Series One) & Chloe Nahum (Series Two)
Music by: Pauline Oliveros, [Silence] (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pauline_Oliveros/EASY_NOT_EASY_Festival_Oct_8_2010/Silence_1082010)
Visual identity by: Vanessa Fowler-Kendall
This podcast has been made possible through support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
We are also extremely grateful to Art UK (https://artuk.org/) and National Life Stories: Artists' Lives (British Library) (https://www.bl.uk/projects/national-life-stories-artists-lives) .
Cathie Pilkington creates surreal, uncanny and ambivalent forms which are designed to unsettle and provoke. She employs a deliberate lack of hierarchy in her materials, using textiles and found objects alongside more traditional sculptural practices. Her work is often presented as an immersive installation, bringing themes of the domestic and everyday life into the language of sculpture.
Alison Wilding emerged into the art world in the 1980s making powerful sculptural statements out of a myriad of materials. Taking sculpture out of the museum and off the plinth, Wilding’s work is some of the most enigmatic and beguiling sculpture being produced, and in a candid interview in her studio we ask her about influences, materials and her experiences of art school.
Gertrude Hermes was one of the most experimental sculptors of the twentieth century. She also changed the way women artists were treated at the Royal Academy forever – a story which had been overlooked until recently.
In October 2021 Veronica Ryan unveiled her first permanent public sculpture, the Hackney Windrush Art Commission, which will be the first public artwork in the UK to honour the Windrush generation. In this episode we interview the artist as we walk with her through her exhibition Along a Spectrum at Spike Island, Bristol, recipient of the annual Freelands Award.
When Dora Gordine died in 1991 leaving her Studio House to the nation, many people, including museum curators, assumed she had been dead for many years. How did an artist described by art critic Jan Gordon in The Observer in 1938 as ‘very possibly becoming the finest woman sculptor in the world’ disappear from view?
We interview Rana Begum in her studio, asking about definitions of sculpture, and things which aren’t usually spoken about – how to balance family life and her artistic career, and the problems she has encountered. We asked her about biography, race, identity and Britishness and how these issues feed into her work.
In a candid interview in her studio we asked Phyllida Barlow about how she came to sculpture, how she defines what sculpture is, how she disrupts those ideas, her recent successes and how they have impacted her.
Kim Lim was born in Singapore and moved to Britain in the 1950’s to enroll at art school. Despite a successful career (there are over 80 of her works in UK public collections) she has been left out of histories of 20th century British Art. This episode explores the reasons for that and ask how these exclusions happen.
In this episode, we explore hidden narratives in Frink’s career, and consider how artists can be sidelined by the ‘art world’ yet remain popular with the public.
Barbara Hepworth was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire in 1903. By the time of her 1975 death, she had become one of the most important artists of the century, creating a poignant and innovative sculptural language.
Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Phyllida Barlow, and Rana Begum - some of the most globally well-known British artists are women sculptors.
Conversely, the profession and practice of sculpture was seen by many throughout the 20th century (and before) to be very much a man’s world. Often using heavy and hard materials, sculpture was not typically viewed as suitable for women artists.
The Sculpting Lives podcast series explores the lives and careers of these five women who worked (and are still working) against these preconceptions, forging successful careers and contributing in ground-breaking ways to the histories of sculpture and art.
Sculpting Lives is a podcast series written and presented by Jo Baring (https://www.jobaring.com/about) (Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art) and Sarah Victoria Turner (https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/about/people/sarah-victoria-turner) (Deputy Director at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London).
Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Phyllida Barlow and Rana Begum – some of the most globally well-known British artists are women sculptors. Conversely, the profession and practice of sculpture was seen by many throughout the twentieth century (and before) to be very much a man’s world. Often using heavy and hard materials, sculpture was not typically viewed as suitable for women artists. Series one explores the lives and careers of these five women who worked (and are still working) against these preconceptions, forging successful careers and contributing in groundbreaking ways to the histories of sculpture and art. Series two features episodes on Dora Gordine, Gertrude Hermes, Veronica Ryan, Alison Wilding and Cathie Pilkington. At a moment when public sculpture is the subject of contentious debate, the final episode of the second series focuses on questions of gender, public sculpture and display, and explores women’s representation – both as subjects and artists – in our public spaces and exhibitions.
Each episode is recorded in places that are significant for the women sculptors featured – their studios, as well as galleries and public places where their work is on display – and includes new interviews with curators, friends, family and the artists themselves, creating intimate soundscapes of their private and public worlds.
The @SculptingLives Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sculptinglives) feed contains more information about the podcast and the artists and artworks featured in it.
Written and hosted by: Jo Baring and Sarah Turner
Produced by: Clare Lynch
Research by: Isabelle Mooney (Series One) & Chloe Nahum (Series Two)
Music by: Pauline Oliveros, [Silence] (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Pauline_Oliveros/EASY_NOT_EASY_Festival_Oct_8_2010/Silence_1082010)
Visual identity by: Vanessa Fowler-Kendall
This podcast has been made possible through support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
We are also extremely grateful to Art UK (https://artuk.org/) and National Life Stories: Artists' Lives (British Library) (https://www.bl.uk/projects/national-life-stories-artists-lives) .
