Charlie Barlow
‘I make; they grow, proliferate and collapse - my sculptures have a fidgety life. They’re sneaky too.’
Charlie materially explores boundaries, creating forms which dribble between sculpture, painting and performance. She exaggerates consumer objects to disrupt the controls of social order, favouring the free and unruly. Commodity choice is based on cleanliness to invert purpose, objects of desire to indulge form and rubbish to rebuild status, moving from mushy toilet rolls to shiny beads and blubbering rubber gloves. Through experimental hands on play with these everyday things, a transformation occurs; functional basics turn into uncertain arrangements, worlds and creatures; a becoming of the ‘Other’. Found tangled with architecture or trespassing grounds, bodily senses are imposed upon. Cumulative constructions expand as they fall apart and leak. When sculptural death arrives, sticky remains linger amongst anxious piles of stuff - an environmental disaster. Charlie uses dark humour to make the identifiable ambiguous, undoing the distinctions between nature and culture in search for alternative structures of organised chaos.
Biography
Charlie Barlow (b. Peterborough, UK) is an installation artist and art teacher, living and working in Peterborough. She received an MA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2018, where she was the recipient of the Clare Winsten Memorial Award (2017). Recent exhibitions include One of Each Kind, 142 Gallery, Felixtowe (2024), Raveningham Sculpture Trail, Norfolk (2024), The Nomenclature of Colours III, UCL, London (2024), Now and Yesterday, Metal Culture, Peterborough (2023), Touch Me Baby, Bad Art, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London (2022), Inside Job, Tate Modern, London (2022), SPILL Festival of Performance (2021), Love Light Festival, Norwich (2020), The Tortoise will Reverse Itself, Academy for Visual Arts, Hong Kong (2018) and Platform 1, Bloomsbury Theatre, London (2018). She has undertaken residencies with Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge (2014), Dyad Creative, Norwich (2017), Kaitak Centre, AVA, HKBU, Hong Kong (2018), stichting NAC, Rotterdam (2023) and Studio459, Tomar, Portugal (2024).
Education
2020-2021 PGCE + QTS (Distinction) - University of Hull / The Deepings SCITT, Peterborough
2016-2018 MA Fine Art (Distinction) - Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London
2011-2014 BA Fine Art (First-class Hons) - Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich
Residencies / Awards
2024 Artist in Residence, Studio459, Tomar, Portugal
2023 Artist in Residence, stichting NAC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2021 Metal Mentoring Programme, Metal Culture UK, Remote
2021 Spill Open Selection, The Pacitti Company, Ipswich
2021 Art//Tech//Play Practice Days, Collusion, Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich
2020 a-n Bursary, a-n The Artists Information Company, Remote
2018 Artist in Residence, Kaitak Centre, Academy for Visual Arts, HKBU, Hong Kong
2017 Clare Winsten Memorial Award, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2017 Artist in Residence, DYAD Creative, Norwich
2016 Slade Bursary, Slade School of Fine Art, London
2015 Arts Internship, Vivacity, Peterborough
2014 Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge
Selected Exhibitions
Solo / 2-3 Person
2024 One of each kind - 142 Art Gallery, Felixstowe
2023 Now and Yesterday - Metal Culture, Peterborough
2018 The Tortoise Will Reverse Itself - Academy for Visual Arts, HKBU, Hong Kong
2017 Touch to Voice - Dove Street Studios, Norwich
2016 Wash Your Dirty Linen In Public - Peterborough City Gallery
Group
2024 Raveningham Sculpture Trail - The Raveningham Centre, Norfolk (current - 17/06 - 8/09 Wed-Sun 9-5pm)
The Nomenclature of Colours III - UCL, London (online)
2023 Norwich Life - Norwich Printing Museum at Anteros Art Foundation, Norwich
Colour/Print/Poetry - Slade Research Centre, UCL, London (online)
2022 Touch Me Baby - Bad Art, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London
Colour/Pigment/Poetry - Slade Research Centre, UCL, London (online)
Inside Job, Tate Modern, London
2021 Spill Festival of Performance, Ipswich
Hot Air - Manor Place Warehouse, London
Colour/Collage/Poetry - Slade Research Centre, UCL, London (online)
2020 Love Light Festival - Norwich (commission)
2019 Just Putting It Out There - Harts Lane Studios, London
TSB - Tate Modern, London
All Work and All Play - Air Gallery, Altrincham
The Clunker - Playhouse Bar, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Norwich
The Nomenclature of Colours - Slade Research Centre, UCL, London
2018 Inside Job - Tate Modern, London
Platform 1 - Bloomsbury Theatre, London
2017 The Clunker - Playhouse Bar / Anteros Arts Foundation, Norwich
Authentic Tongues - Bloomsbury Theatre, London
MEMEMEME - Crypt Gallery, London
2016 Live Art - Wymondham, Norfolk
BAS8 Takeover - NUA, Norwich
In Loving Memory - Geddes Gallery, London
Scratch Performances - Anteros Arts Foundation, Norwich
2015 Peterborough Arts Festival - Peterborough (commission)
Shades of Yellow - Embassy Tea Gallery, London
Secret Circus - The Key Theatre, Peterborough (commission)
2014 LAS Public Presentation - Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire
Art Car Boot Fair - Redwell Brewery, Norwich
In Loving Memory - Stew Gallery, Norwich
Process - Stew Gallery, Norwich
Fourteen - The Fabric Warehouse, Norwich
2013 NUA - Firstsite, Essex
Aience - NUA, Norwich
No Working Title - Tate Modern, London
Text
2018 Urban Textures: Reassembling the Relegated
2017 A Tour of The Monuments of Stephenson Street
2014 Material Parasites: Ooze as Sustenance
Press
2021 Spill Festival Interview, BBC Radio Suffolk, 29 Oct, Ipswich
2020 Isovist, An Interview by James Milner, 02 Dec, London
2020 Love Light Festival Interview, BBC Radio Norfolk, 14 Feb, Norwich
2017 Slade Research Weeks, Research on the Body, Colour & Sound, The Slade Research Centre, p.10-11, London
2016 Slade Research Weeks, Research on the Space, Collaboration, Body & Voice, The Slade Research Centre, p.15-17, London
2016 Wash Your Dirty Linen In Public Review, Alistair Gentry, 25 March, Peterborough
Teaching / Workshops
2023 Secondary & Primary Art Teacher - Marshfield's School, Peterborough
2022 Secondary Art Teacher - Spalding High School, Spalding
2021 Secondary Art Teacher - Ken Stimpson Community School, Peterborough
2018 Visiting Lecturer - Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich
2017 Workshop Leader - Bath Spa University, Bath Statement
