5 things to know about When Forms Come Alive

Spanning more than six decades of contemporary sculpture, When Forms Come Alive brought together a collection of works which seem to have an eerie life of their own, each one showcasing the different ways in which artists draw on the familiar experiences of movement and growth. 

Taking inspiration from sources that range from the breaking of a wave to a dancer’s gesture, When Forms Come Alive’s works came from 21 international artists, including Phyllida Barlow, Michel Blazy, Tara Donovan, Studio DRIFT, Holly Hendry and Franz West. And here are five things to know about the exhibition, which ran at the Hayward Gallery until 6 May 2024.

Forms of organic life have influenced many of the show’s artists 

From termite mounds to spider webs, elements of landscape or parts of bodies, these sculptures evoke natural forms with the implication that they might grow, evolve or writhe. They are, in the words of one of the artists in the exhibition, ‘twitching with life’. 

Many of the works have richly textured surfaces or forms 

The exhibition includes a number of works that invite a tactile gaze and create an almost bodily response. Works such as Matthew Ronay’s intricate and brightly coloured sculptures. Carved from wood, their strange forms are also familiar – drawn from biological and botanical references that recall the interior landscape of our own bodies, they are reconfigured as mysterious miniature ecosystems.

The works suggest altered, or dream-like, versions of familiar things

The sculptures in the exhibition are abstract, yet they call to mind a wide range of forms, and in doing so take on a kind of uncanny presence. Phyllida Barlow was inspired by a strange childhood memory of large, anthropomorphic forms and her sculptures are so animated they teeter, balanced in precarious poses that echo the artist’s description of ‘restless’ sculpture.

Several works in the exhibition have a playful, or humorous dimension 

The strange and lumpy forms of Franz West seem provisional and deliberately off-balance, drawing on a slapstick-like physicality. His work reminds us that the ambiguity of forms can be both profound and absurd.

The oldest work in the exhibition is by Ruth Asawa

Her hanging sculptures are made from looped wire, a technique that she began experimenting with in the late 1940s. The resulting forms have a lightness and transparency that belies their complexity. Interior spheres create nesting forms with varying densities, creating patterns of light and shadow.

Top image: Installation view of Phyllida Barlow, When Forms Come Alive (7 February — 6 May 2024). Photo: Jo Underhill. Courtesy the Hayward Gallery.