The Pakistan-born sculptor was nervous to show her irreverent work – made using plastic bags, pincers and chairs – beside the Swiss existential hero’s but tells us ‘they’re enjoying each other’s company’
Two tonnes of Huma Bhabha’s works greet you before you even reach the entrance of her new exhibition at the Barbican in London. They are four powerful ancient-looking giants, with rough-hewn surfaces, gouged and blackened (the effect achieved by first carving in cork, then casting in patinated bronze). With their enormous skull heads towering above you, baring pincers and rows of teeth, it’s as if you’ve stumbled on the set for an apocalyptic sci-fi film. “It seems they’re suddenly here, as if they’ve just come out of the elevator,” Bhabha says affectionately.