5 QUESTIONS WITH SCULPTOR PETER BARBOR

BY LUCY CHEN // LUCYCHEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

IN PETER BARBOR’S STUDIO, you’ll find buckets of clay and paper pulp, steel cages, and various fibers spread over the floor. All these elements work to build up the figures he creates, all of which portray decaying forms like a preserved body pulled out of a bog.

Born in Western Pennsylvania, Barbor was recently a resident at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, but now resides in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh City Paper spoke with Barbor about history, “artistic genius,” and his process.

Peter Barbor

peterbarbor.com

You have a very unique and distinctive use of mediums to create partial human forms out of clay, metal, and natural fibers. What led you to create using these materials?

All of my work stems from my study of ceramics and drawing. Before I declared ceramics as my major in art school, I was mostly interested in figure drawing from observation. When I draw, I enjoy layering mark-making techniques and material on a page to create a sense of history and depth. This translated well into clay, which in turn influenced how I navigate other mediums. I don’t deal well with materials that aren’t receptive to touch. I don’t find them intuitive to work with at all.

Plasticity is a quality that is important in ceramics, and almost everything I work with has a plastic stage. Wax, plaster, and clay can all be modeled. Wire mesh holds shapes and defines volume. In graduate school, I became less interested in just using clay and more interested in what happens when many materials work together. How can a piece signify something through its composition that is different from if it were materially uniform? I think a sculpture made of clay and something else is more similar to our bodies. Figuring out that material hierarchy within a piece never bores me.

What inspires you when you first start a piece?

When I was younger, I often worked from a personal reservoir of ideas. More and more, I want to approach making thing as “medieval” today, it’s usually in a pejorative sense. Medieval materiality, however, was very sensitive and rich, especially compared to the gray, prefabricated aesthetics we produce today. I like to explore similar materials today because there is this immense gulf between what I am looking at and referencing and what is possible with my contemporary understanding of the same things.

Your work “Bayeux Bois” is directly inspired by the figures of the “Bayeux Tapestry” and brings them into 3D life. Are your other works directly inspired by specific objects of the past, or typically by the time period in general?

That piece was the first work that I made in grad school, and so a lot of it was about trying to understand something historical through the tools of an artist. To memory, I have never made a work so directly related to a historical artifact since. I was drawn to making that piece because it helped me reconcile how arbitrary at times figurative representation can be. I was struggling with how to visually represent the figure. How “realistic” should I make something? At that time, adopting the style of the figures in the “Bayeux Tapestry” helped me depart from a way of sculpting the human body that was not grounded in much of anything. “Bayeux Bois” started me down a more dedicated path of thinking through certain histories.

Are there any projects you are excited about in the future? Or can you share a dream project or collaboration?

Right now I am working on a group show with a few other artists that should be on view in the fall. It’s the first thing since the peak of COVID that feels “‘normal’” for me, which is nice. I keep considering where my work would best be viewed. I am curious about ephemeral outdoor installation. While the content of my work is increasingly less and less overtly personal, the act of making has become a more and more private experience. It’s difficult to balance teaching, making, and life’s other demands, especially when my studio practice is rarely lucrative in a conventional sense. Collaboration, for now, feels like something that is off the table. I would love to be invited to test a piece in an unconventional space outdoors, however. •