Children are a regular feature at Frieze, especially at the weekend, but the set of identical twin girls, who have been wandering the aisles whispering conspiratorially between themselves, united by their luxuriant and uncannily conjoined hair, are no ordinary youngsters but a work by the Brazilian artist Tunga. Siamese Hair Twins, part of the fair’s Live programme, is a joint project between Luhring Augustine and Franco Noero galleries (FL, L6). According to Tunga, this faintly sinister duo, who refuse to talk or establish eye contact with anyone apart from each other, encapsulate a self-contained, pre-adolescent state of “indifference to the opinions of others and the happiness of being together”, with their prolific locks symbolising an almost umbilical co-dependence that is destined to be severed by puberty.
The work, which was first performed in 1984, has been enacted across the world. The two pairs of twins who form its London incarnation were carefully coached not to have any dealings with strangers and to walk wherever, and for as long as they choose. And anyone who tries too hard to engage the shy sisters in conversation, be warned: their mother is always positioned nearby to keep a close and beady eye.
The beat goes on for Anri Sala at Frieze
The Albanian-born, Berlin-based artist Anri Sala was seen on Thursday swaying gently to the beat under the maple trees of Regent’s Park during a sweet-sounding performance of his piece To Each His Own (in Bridges) (2015), made in collaboration with the US composer and saxophonist André Vida.
Based on 74 different pieces of music, and played on the saxophone, clarinet and trombone, the haunting 23-minute-long piece combines fragments of pop, jazz and folk songs, including melodious excerpts from the Beatles.
Meanwhile, at Marian Goodman Gallery (FL,C7), Sala’s percussive sculptures can be heard tapping away. But the artist is no stranger to acoustic challenges: last year his work animated the foyer of the Haus der Kunst in Munich. And the music goes on: next year the artist takes on the acoustically-challenging spaces of New York’s New Museum for his solo show, which is due to open in February.
Grayson Perry goes head-to-head with Mondrian
Not the only potter in the art village? British artist Grayson Perry was looking somewhat disgruntled at Frieze Masters, having just made the discovery that, on Dickinson’s stand (FM, C4), another big name artist—a certain Piet Mondrian—had also made a foray into ceramic vessels. The Jermyn Street gallery is displaying a rare plate made by the Dutch Modernist master early in his career.
But after acknowledging that there was a considerable difference in the two artist’s signature styles, Perry was then happy to scrutinize the Leger-inspired Cubist painting that the gallery has on display. Titled Mystery Painting, the work carries a notice inviting fair-goers to test their connoisseurship and to identify its creator. Although Perry did not come up with any possible names, he suggested that he might just do a bit of sneaky provenance-cooking: “Watch out, I’m thinking of taking some photographs and slipping them into a few catalogues!”
Stop the press: Michael Landy woos Glenn Brown
Gagosian’s stand (FL,C3), which is full of Glenn Brown’s exquisite old masterly drawings, has been one of the talking points of this year’s Frieze. But it turns out that the omnipotent blue-chip gallery may have some competition for their starring artist. Among the logos and personal, political and art historical references in the drawings that make up Michael Landy’s Breaking News show, currently lining the walls of the artist’s East End studio, is the discreet sign that reads: “Michael Landy Represents Glenn Brown Exclusively worldwide”. To thicken the plot, Landy’s cheeky piece about his fellow high-end artist pal was spotted, and immediately snapped up, by Landy’s sharp-eyed former dealer Karsten Schubert. Breaking news, indeed…
Why Elmgreen & Dragset are happy to be labelled
The writing is definitely on the wall for Elmgreen & Dragset, whose new work at Victoria Miro’s gallery in Mayfair—a series entitled “Self-Portraits”—marks 20 years of the pair’s artistic collaboration. The series consists of appropriated museum wall labels that describe other artists’ work, including David Hockney, Roni Horn, Martin Kippenberger and Nicole Eisenman, in a range of the most traditional high-art materials, including the finest carved marble. It’s ironic, given they have always made a point of banning labels from their own shows. Apparently, each carefully-selected title represents a special experience or emotional development in their shared life, and so the personal and creative history of the pair can be tracked around the gallery, although they insist that it is really a portrait of “the fictional creative creature that sits between us”. The mind slightly boggles at the subtext to titles such as Two Fighting Bulls (Allan Kaprow) and Clean Boy (David Hockney), while they reveal that their reason for selecting On Kawara’s 15 April, 1994 is because it was the date of their first meeting.
