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Review: London Frieze



My friend said, "I'm getting more bored than tired" so after two and half hours, we decided to leave. I could end my review here.

I don't have any strong feelings about it, to be honest. As you probably predicted, I'm going to write that I've seen a huge amount of ugly and boring paintings. Actually, 65% of sculptures were boring as well. However, there were three things I got excited about:

1. Seventeen Gallery - Jesus Fucking Christ okay okay okay I know I mentioned Seventeen Gallery a lot recently but everyone who went to Frieze must agree with me that that was the coolest booth ever! That actually made me decide to start collecting snail artworks. Some collect penguins... and I'll collect snails. It was a great pleasure to finally have a chat with the gallery's director, David Hoyland. I really felt that he could be the fair's hope for change!!!!

2. A chair under a tree in Sculpture Park - last year, someone put socks on a tree (it wasn't an official participant in that exhibition but made the most exciting artwork), and this year, a chair appeared under a tree. I really like these games: Is it an artwork? Who put it there? Why? Why not? If this is a work of art, what does it mean in the context of this fair and in relation to the sculpture park? Ahhh, I just enjoy these silly questions.

3. A conceptual work for sale at Frieze!!!! - Echo by Doki Kim at Gallery Baton! Definitely read about it! I wasn't sure if I could touch it, but I absolutely loved it! Like are you kidding me??? An actual conceptual work at Frieze? Something that you actually can not buy!!!??? But for sale?!

VITRINE Gallery presented Kara Chin's works, which were pretty cool,and the way they did it was quite original compared to 95% of other galleries.

Ginny on Frederic...well. He's definitely not afraid to make bold decisions. He presented two large works by Jack O' Brien, of which the one standing in the very centre was difficult to walk around. All eyes in London are on him.

Phillida Reid - I heard about them before but their booth grabbed my heart. These are really lovely and interesting works. I will definitely come to see exhibitions in the future.

I wanted to end this review with my sad reflections: I wanted to send some photos from the fair to my Mum but realised that none of them would probably amuse her :c I wonder whether I stopped admiring its beauty and started searching only for negatives :c I recently set up a group chat for those within my community who would like to write reviews (now it's changing into a gossip group), and one of the members wrote, "I asked some people I knew who were seeing it [Frieze] for the first time and they were excited and thought (half way in) that it was good." After two years of posting about art, my original questions, "What is art? Do I like it? Why?" changed into "Why is it so flat? Does it have to be like this? Am I cringing?" I few people also told me about Frieze "It is what it is" as in it's an art fair. So I wonder...what do we actually want it to be and do?

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