The new Julia Phillips exhibition at the Barbican’s Curve Gallery is somewhat reminiscent of an abattoir.
The sculptures on display feature visceral pinks intertwined with the steely grey of flesh-manipulating equipment.
Look more closely (and read the explanatory panels) and you’ll learn that the delicate glazed clay objects are of human form, many of them cast from the artist’s own body. And the instruments with which they interact are vaguely medical.
The titles of the works reference gynaecological themes with bovine overtones: Inseminator, Fertilizer, Suspended Interior. Shiny pink Drainer is hung above an actual drain.
As a counterpoint to the unsettling sculptures, there are also more everyday works such as two faces singing in Harmonizer and Mediator III, a pair of chest-like forms facing a microphone.
The German-American artist says she is interested in human bonds but also reconfigurations, the anatomical alongside the industrial.
Commenting on the collection, Phillips says: “Inside Before They Speak can also refer to a patient and a doctor – to a moment before diagnosis, a moment before operation”.
There is plenty to read into these haunting forms, which may for some dredge up disturbing memories of hospital visits, and for others evoke the joy of a new baby.
The symbolic richness of Phillips’s oeuvre makes her first solo show in the UK well worth a visit.
Julia Phillips: Inside Before They Speak
Until 19 April 2026.
The Curve, Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London
EC2Y 8DS
