Thea Djordjadze at Frieze Projects 2015. Image by Plastiques Photography
At a fair where thousands of artworks seem to compete with each other in loudness and grandeur, one would have to spend quite some time locating this year’s contribution from Georgian artist Thea Djordjadze. In fact, we had to refer to the map several times and double check with staff to confirm the presence of the actual work, mapped at the very entrance of fair’s enormous tent that is built around and on top of the trees of Regent’s Park, that have to share their habitat with the international art world for a week every year. But in fact, it’s the broadly overlooked vegetation surrounding the fair that serves to be the key for unlocking Djordjadze’s sculptural and sometimes multi-media practice: up in the trees, strange-looking leather sacks reminiscent of boxing punch bags carry hoards of large, foreign-looking plants, adding a welcome touch of tropical climate to London’s stormy autumnal weather.
Thea Djordjadze at Frieze Projects 2015. Image by Plastiques Photography
Born in Georgia in 1971, Djordjadze settled in Germany in 1995 after completing her MFA in Tsibili, and has since lived and worked in Berlin. She is internationally recognised for her ambitious sculpture and installation work, and recently completed a residency at South London Gallery. Represented by Berlin powerhouse Sprüth Magers Gallery, Djordjadze is aligned with its posse of strong and vanguard female artists.
Thea Djordjadze at Frieze Projects 2015. Image by Plastiques Photography
With her new commission for Frieze Projects, the artist intervenes with the particularly chaotic infrastructure of the art fair with a new body of mobile plant-based work that populate unexpected locations in and around the fair. Enormous and largely ungroomed arrangements of greenery pop up in the aisles, in the eating area, and even in the gallery booths, only to disappear the next day and present themselves somewhere else. Sometimes, the works are totally overlooked or mistaken for a modest attempt of institutional interior decorating, and other times they rather differently achieve a proud and indeed sculptural presence in central squares of the tent. The particular plant used is called Monstera Deliciosa which inspired Matisse’s iconic “Cut-Outs” – supposedly ”roaming around freely” at night when the fair closes, they negotiate a strange but humorous autonomy of nature in a totally culturally-constructed space.
Thea Djordjadze at Frieze Projects 2015. Image by Plastiques Photography
Some of the best art at Frieze tends to be the kind that you unexpectedly bump in to – and with her contribution to the fair, Thea Djordjadze has certainly challenged the way nature is excluded from the experience of art. Whether these commodified fragments of the outdoor have a price tag, or in fact have already even been sold, remains undisclosed.
Text by Jeppe Ugelvig
Read more of our Frieze coverage
Frieze London 2015 takes place in Regent’s Park, London, until 17 October
More: Frieze Projects: Lutz Bacher Invites Fair-goers to Purgatory
More: Frieze Projects: Asad Raza Creates Intimacy Through Mythology