delightful
and
powerful
experience
not
to
be
missed
Frieze is full swing, it has become within 4 years THE event to see, VIP, journalists, collectors or simple visitors, more than 60.000 people, all rushed in, and just loved it. 157 Major international galleries have been selected and a very eclectic choice of works is presented in a spacious and clean tent in the heart of Regent's Park. It has become an institutional event very quickly, positioned close to Basel Fair or Armory Show of New York. The choice of the artists is probably guided by the desire of keeping it to this standard, perhaps less risky and let's say, less subversive as it could be. But the standard is extremely high and the pleasure at his maximum.
Frieze presents a very large choice of works and an eclectic vision, rating from paintings (no, it hasn't died yet), performances, installations, videos, photos, sculptures, all genres are represented, and express the sensitivities of all continents. Around this event a large program of visits of the City, films, conferences, and the Cartier Award, no chance to feel any ennui.
A few artistic trends emerge, the all against war, all against Bush with Camo Family, the fuck you trend treated as chic and soft at Stephen Friedman's Gallery with Kendell Geers, the societal questioning of Titchner, the do something out of nothing trend with Graham Griffith, a lot of humour, irresistible miniatures with Hans Jin from Corea… Very intense photographs of Douglas Gordon with his series between you and me.
Read me, Titchner again, Land Art with David Nash and his engraved woods.
Again there is a lot to see, a good sample of what's on and what counts in the contemporary art market.
Frieze presents a very large choice of works and an eclectic vision, rating from paintings (no, it hasn't died yet), performances, installations, videos, photos, sculptures, all genres are represented, and express the sensitivities of all continents. Around this event a large program of visits of the City, films, conferences, and the Cartier Award, no chance to feel any ennui.
A few artistic trends emerge, the all against war, all against Bush with Camo Family, the fuck you trend treated as chic and soft at Stephen Friedman's Gallery with Kendell Geers, the societal questioning of Titchner, the do something out of nothing trend with Graham Griffith, a lot of humour, irresistible miniatures with Hans Jin from Corea… Very intense photographs of Douglas Gordon with his series between you and me.
Read me, Titchner again, Land Art with David Nash and his engraved woods.
Again there is a lot to see, a good sample of what's on and what counts in the contemporary art market.
Carsten Höller, Tate Modern
At the same time, I took a chance to visit Tate Modern, with a funny show by Carsten Höller in the Turbine Hall: hundreds of Londoner of all ages come here to enjoy the experience of sliding, and the "voluptuous panic upon on otherwise lucid mind". The slides by themselves are impressive sculptures, allowing both "the visual spectacle of watching people sliding and the 'inner spectacle' experienced by the sliders themselves, the state of simultaneous delight and anxiety that you enter as you descend". Höller has undertaken many projects that invite the visitor interaction, (flying machine in 1996, upside down goggles 1994-2001, he questions human behaviour and offers the possibility for self exploration of the process.
The major event of Tate Modern is the Fischli and Weiss Flowers and questions exhibition, a vast retrospective devoted to these extremely prolific artists who have collaborated together for more than 30 years. Their work is a witty testimony of life as it can be experienced everyday. They describe their method as “concentrated daydreaming”, move freely between different media: photography, installations video, sculpture and slide projections, and develop catalogues, posters and publications conceived as artists' projects.
The film The way things go, is about inert household objects set in motion to elaborate a funny chain of catastrophe. Their hand-carved sculpture of everyday objects and series of photographs are characterised by a playful sense of humour, a childlike spirit of discovery. In a series of colourful inkjet pictures sausages and "mortadella" become the main characters of a car accident and everyday life situations. Big and small questions provide a representative overview of their duo with witty visions of oppositions: theory and praxis, light and heavy… Rubber cast in huge sizes represent elements of nature.
A delightful and powerful experience not to be missed.
The major event of Tate Modern is the Fischli and Weiss Flowers and questions exhibition, a vast retrospective devoted to these extremely prolific artists who have collaborated together for more than 30 years. Their work is a witty testimony of life as it can be experienced everyday. They describe their method as “concentrated daydreaming”, move freely between different media: photography, installations video, sculpture and slide projections, and develop catalogues, posters and publications conceived as artists' projects.
The film The way things go, is about inert household objects set in motion to elaborate a funny chain of catastrophe. Their hand-carved sculpture of everyday objects and series of photographs are characterised by a playful sense of humour, a childlike spirit of discovery. In a series of colourful inkjet pictures sausages and "mortadella" become the main characters of a car accident and everyday life situations. Big and small questions provide a representative overview of their duo with witty visions of oppositions: theory and praxis, light and heavy… Rubber cast in huge sizes represent elements of nature.
A delightful and powerful experience not to be missed.
Edith Herlemont-Lassiat
London, October 2006
Frieze Art Fair