Phyllida Barlow was joined in conversation by artist Vincent Fecteau to discuss her commission, act, at Highgate Cemetery. At the Cemetery, Barlow created an imposing, sepulchral form in a dramatic and contemplative response to the funerary architecture of the site.

For more than 50 years, her large–scale installations have tested the possibilities of sculpture. Consisting of industrial or everyday materials her structures of stacked, bound and balanced materials have a challenging physical presence and yet often appear at the edge of collapse.

Since the early 1990s, Vincent Fecteau has used simple, everyday materials such as papier-mâché and clay, as well as such items as rubber bands, seashells, and string, to create abstract sculptures and collages. His forms are often incongruous or unsettling, but are characterised by their precise and sophisticated compositions.

Barlow and Fecteau discussed the commission and recent work, including Barlow’s stage set for Mozart’s 1781 opera, Idomeneo, at Bayerische Staatsoper, as well as their respective relationships to materials, sculpture, and working during lockdown.