Rolling into town each year with over 160 galleries riding on its coat tails, Frieze is undeniably a show-off. So you would be forgiven for thinking the point was to show work. But, while this year’s galleries have given us plenty to stare at, Elephant found ourselves caught up in a game of hide and seek.
Taking the memo very seriously, the Esther Schipper booth is draped wall-to-wall with white curtains. Ryan Gander’s baroque mirror I be… (xiii), 2016, which is partially hidden by a swathe of fabric, reveals art world vanities. Elephant has spotted several selfies taking place, begging the question: Who is the fairest of them all?
At Frutta Gallery, parts of the artwork has physically gone undercover. Lauren Keeley’s chaotic restaurant-themed booth, with its checked red & white tablecloths and topsy-turvy paintings spinning manically upon the walls, reveals several clues. Discovering half-finished plates, we assumed everyone must have left in a hurry, until the absentee diners’ legs poking out from underneath the table gave the game away.
Several galleries are seen to be hiding spectators completely. Aaron Garber-Maikovska’s maze with Paris’s High Art provides childish amusement for several suited Frieze attendees, dashing through its paper corridors at breakneck speed. 303 Gallery plays host to Karen Kilimnik’s verdant boxwork hedges, that obscure a detour leading to her illustrative drawings.
Several artists have also attempted disguise: as part of Frieze projects, Julie Verhoeven has been spotted posing as a toilet attendant, having made a wonderful, rubbish-strewn mess in the toilet (literally).
Frieze London runs until 9 October at Regent’s Park, London
