Frances Goodman, ‘Pillar IV’ and ‘Pillar V’, 2024 

Frances Goodman, Pillar IV and Pillar V, 2024.

Glazed ceramics, metal structure. Presented by SPECTA

About the Work

Painkillers, drugs, vitamins, medication and psychotropic pills are increasingly part of our everyday lives. In Frances Goodman’s ‘Pillars’, ceramic pills and tablets are meticulously stacked, forming dizzying, Jenga-like towers that can kill your pain, help you get high, rejuvenate, calm down and stabilize your mind. 

The pills are enhancers and relievers. They enhance our body and mind for better health, stronger senses and increased focus. They relieve pain, adjust our emotions and make the unbearable bearable. There is a pill for everything. However, just as the ‘Pillars’ loom above us, they are like a house of cards: teetering towers that are subject to collapsing at the lightest breeze or smallest nudge. There is no guarantee that a mood/mind-altering, health-enhancing pill or unknown substance can change your state of being. ‘Change can either make or break you,’ Goodman says. 

In The Regent’s Park, Goodman’s two sculptures, Pillar IV and Pillar V, stand either side of a pathway. They resemble a portal, a door one goes through. In that way, the placement of these totems, in a broader sense, mimics the effect of a pill: it marks a crossing, just as the pill is a vessel carrying us to a different state. 

About the Artist

Frances Goodman (b. 1975, Johannesburg; lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a multi-disciplinary artist who often employs the materials of the beauty industry to interrogate the portrayal of women, drawing attention to popular cultural definitions that narrow the possibilities of identity to extremes of consumption, obsession, desire and anxiety.  

Recent and upcoming exhibitions include those at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (2024), Saatchi Gallery, London (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2021); Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris (2024); SPECTA, Copenhagen (2022); SMAC Gallery, Cape Town (2023); The Kilbourn Collection and Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2023). 

Her work is included in several collections, including Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town; The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM); the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; the Missoni Collection, Milan; the South African Reserve Bank Art Collection, Johannesburg; the Matthais & Gervanne Leridon Collection, Cape Town; the Francis J. Greenburger Collection (The FJGC), New York; and the Martin Nielsen Collection, Denmark. 

Frieze Sculpture is in The Regent’s Park, 18 September – 27 October 2024. No booking required, it is free and accessible to all. 

EXPLORE FRIEZE SCULPTURE

Further Information 

Frieze Sculpture runs alongside Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 9 – 13 October.

Tickets to the fairs are on sale – buy yours now. Alternatively, become a member to enjoy premier access, exclusive guided tours and more.

BUY NOW

To keep up to date on all the latest news from Frieze, sign up to the newsletter at frieze.com, and follow @friezeofficial on Instagram, X and Frieze Official on Facebook.

Digital Guide

Bloomberg Connects is the Official Digital Guide to Frieze Sculpture. The Bloomberg Connects app offers exclusive content including audio guides by Fatos Üstek, Curator of Frieze Sculpture, and the exhibiting artists. To access the Official Digital Guide, search for Bloomberg Connects on Apple Store and Google Play.

^{Main Image: Frances Goodman, Pillar III (Comfortably Numb), 2024. Glazed ceramics. Courtesy: the artist and SPECTA}