Adam Barker-Mill - Retrospektive, Kunstmuseum Ahlen

Adam Barker-Mill: Retrospektive was the British artist's first major solo exhibition in Germany, held at the Kunstmuseum Ahlen from 24 November 2019 to 16 February 2020 in cooperation with Bartha Contemporary. It brought together more than 40 light objects and large installations from the previous 30 years, including two walk-in light rooms, as well as recent works, many of them shown for the first time, among them a new series of Bucket Lamps. Beyond v3 (2018), in waxed Valchromat with LED lights, was one of the works in Ahlen.

At the start of the exhibition Colour Cube, a permanent outdoor light sculpture Barker-Mill designed for Ahlen, was inaugurated on the edge of the museum square. It is part of Hellweg ein Lichtweg, a programme of light art across the region.

Barker-Mill was born in 1940 in Wookey Hole, Somerset, and his interest in light began with a childhood fascination with the caves there. From 1964 to 1984 he worked regularly with the filmmaker James Scott, often as lighting director and main cameraman. His sculptures look simple but are built to generate and modulate light, and their effects change with the viewer's position and the light around them.

Bartha Contemporary published the catalogue, adam barker-mill, with texts by Owen Griffith, Carolyn Barker-Mill and Rozemin Keshvani (Kettler Verlag, 2019).