Friday 14 October 2011

Frieze framed 1 - Photography

Frieze is an art fair - the dealers want to sell their stock of art and the buyers want to get first choice if they can.
This year the fair seems even larger but the choice of work on offer reflects to some extent the state of the global financial market- there is less poor work, most of the work is by successful artists and more work is aimed at the financial investor - as Grayson Perry said, at a talk I went to, many people at Frieze buy with their ears.
I have chosen pieces for the blog that could inspire my own work.

I took many more photos of photos but due to the amount of reflection you get they are generally poor images. I include below some of the better ones ...


Rodney Graham - Small Basement Camera Shop circa 1937
This captures the feeling of nostalgia but you also feel as if it is a set up shot made to look old - perhaps it looks too perfect.


Jane and Louise Wilson - Untitled (Nature abhors a vacuum)
I think this is one of a series of photos of the abandoned village near Chernobyl - strangely beautiful despite the horror of the nuclear accident.


Wolfgang Tillmans 's underpants


Catherine Yass's lighthouse light box
The light box seems to be a better way of displaying photographs - little reflection and the ability to highlight certain aspects of the image.


Interesting set of photos in the Vitamin creative space gallery - by Koki Tanaka.


Alex Hartley - Waiting for the daylight to end ( Kaczynski's cabin)
His photos always look flat until you look closer and see there is a 3d, wood element - this time the cabin and a door that is slightly ajar.




Possibly my favourite by Douglas Gordon - Self portrait of you + Me (David Bowie 04)
I like the way he has used a burnt photograph, smoke and a mirror - and a pun thrown in for free.

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