Where one of his American Pop colleagues, Claes Oldenburg, reinvented sculpture in the early 1960s by taking 'hard' manufactured objects from the contemporary environment and rendering them as 'soft' forms sewn from canvas, Barker has often turned forms that are pliable or tender to the touch into inflexible metal objects that convey an indisputable sense of their permanence. In Origami Boat Barker addresses the theme of fragility while creating something virtually indestructible. Barker burst onto the Swinging London Pop Art scene in 1966 with a one-man show at the legendary Robert 'Groovy Bob' Fraser Gallery. Barker's legacy as the heir to Marcel Duchamp and the forerunner of Jeff Koons has been recognised over the years.

Museums holding Barker's work include: Tate, London; British Museum, London; Staedtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim; Museum fuer Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; National Museum of South Australia, Adelaide; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.