Screened on the occasion of the exhibition Barry Flanagan: Pataphysics and Play, the new film ‘Imaginary Solutions’ (17 mins) presents Flanagan’s diverse experimentation with materials and passionate commitment to redefining sculpture’s parameters. His inventiveness and versatility are illustrated with interviews and archive recordings. These include Flanagan’s television appearance on The South Bank Show with Melvyn Bragg in 1983 and an interview with artist Andy Holden that was broadcast on Resonance FM in 2008.

Though best known for his bronze hare sculptures, Barry Flanagan worked across a diverse range of media. In 1968, Flanagan began experimenting with film and the effects of light projection. In conjunction with the 2020–21 exhibition of Flanagan’s work in the Kasmin Sculpture Garden, three of the artist’s films from this period exploring pataphysical philosophy—or “the science of imaginary solutions,”—formulated by the French playwright and author Alfred Jarry were screened. A trio of his avant-garde works, including a hole in the sea (1969), sandgirl (1970), and bollards project (1970) were on view from December 8–13, 2020.