This strange object is difficult to decipher. Is it heavy or light? Durable or delicate? Although its form bears some resemblance to that of coral or rock, it is made of low-grade industrial materials, including cement and steel mesh, which Barlow commonly used in her work. In evoking both the organic and the industrial, the earthly and the alien, the piece has an uncanny quality that disrupts our assumed knowledge about the world. The artist placed the object on an angled tabletop, which lends the work a feeling of precarity, even suspense, and transforms its display into a performance in which the object may slide off at any moment. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025
