Screened on the occasion of 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.
“I prefer working with the essential stuff of sculpture rather than my own ‘ambitions’ for it. This way I hope to find things” —Barry Flanagan, 1969.
Interviewees include artists and collaborators who knew Flanagan for years: Bruce McLean, a fellow student from St. Martins; Jerry Hughes, AB Fine Art Foundry manager who worked closely with him for decades; Mark Jones, artist and metal worker who assisted Flanagan at the foundry; Swiss artist Sophie Bouvier Ausländer, who first encountered Flanagan’s work as a student and describes its lasting effects on her thinking; and Dr. Jo Melvin, Director of the Estate of Barry Flanagan.
Barry Flanagan: Pataphysics and Play is on view at 514 West 28th Street through May 20, 2023. Learn more about the artist here.