Issue 124
Jun - Aug 2009

In the summer issue of frieze Jan Verwoert cracks the codes of Conceptual art.

Dominic Eichler examines the humour, absurdity and social criticism that have shaped the career of artist Thomas Bayrle.

Jennifer Higgie discusses the persistent and enigmatic subject throughout art history of women turning away.

Musician David Grubbs in conversation with experimental artist, filmmaker and composer Tony Conrad. In Lindsay Seers‘ films and installations, Tom Morton suggests that the truth is not what it seems. Joan Jonas talks to artist and composer Alan Curran about myth, music and history in her video and performance art. Also featuring two special artist projects by Enrico David and Jeffrey Vallance.

In ‘City Report: Dublin’ Brian Dillon and Maeve Connolly find that despite the decline of Ireland’s economy, Dublin’s artist-run and institutional spaces are thriving.

From this issue

Dirty Projectors (Domino, 2009)

BY Sam Thorne |

Various Artists (Mordant Music, 2009)

BY Daniel Trilling |

Despite the decline of Ireland’s ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy, Dublin’s artist-run and institutional spaces are thriving

BY Brian Dillon AND Maeve Connolly |

Cracking the codes of Conceptual art

BY Jan Verwoert |

Jennifer Higgie on the women who turned their backs

BY Jennifer Higgie |

Human cameras, fortune tellers, unreliable memories – in Lindsay Seers’ work, the truth is not what it seems

BY Tom Morton |

Joan Jonas talks about the evolution of her work and the importance of myth, music and history to her thinking

BY Alvin Curran |

Various locations, New Zealand

BY Max Delany |

Parody, intrigue and innuendo; time travel, referentiality and social comedy

BY Jörg Heiser |

Sophie Calle tells frieze her dream job: secret agent

BY Sophie Calle |

In an ongoing series, frieze asks an artist, curator or writer to list the books that have influenced them

BY Mark Pilkington |

Bohemianism, grass-roots activism, urban regeneration and the voices of the dead

BY Melissa Gronlund |

Ghosts in popular culture are being replaced. What does this reveal about our changing attitudes to death?

BY Sarah Khan |

A recent performance about masculinity and sport revealed cultural exclusion within the art world

BY Christopher Bedford |

What it means to have countless namesakes on Google

BY Jennifer Allen |

The intertwining of business, finance, art and numerology

BY George Pendle |

Enigmas, paradoxes and riddles: photographs of sculptures and sculptures of photographs

Thomas Bayrle’s long and varied career as an artist reveals a sensibility shaped in equal parts by humour, absurdity and social criticism

BY Dominic Eichler |

Panoramic historical narratives are alive and well in the world of comics

BY Robert Storr |

Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, USA

BY Kristin M. Jones |

Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, China

BY Carol Yinghua Lu |

Wall texts in museums and galleries are meant to elucidate and educate, why are most badly written, full of jargon, and painfully reductive?

BY Tom Morton |

Mulatu Astatke/The Heliocentrics (Strut Records, 2009)

BY Dan Fox |

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

BY Kate Fowle |

Various Venues, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

BY Jonathan Griffin |

Tate Liverpool, UK

BY Martin Herbert |

Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

BY Amanda Coulson |

South London Gallery, UK

BY Kate Forde |

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA

BY Christopher Bedford |

Esther Schipper, Berlin, Germany

BY Jennifer Allen |

westlondonprojects, London, UK

BY Sam Thorne |

Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria

BY Jakob Neulinger |

Generator Projects, Dundee, UK

BY Colin Perry |

Santa Monica Museum of Art, USA

BY Quinn Latimer |

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

BY Kirsty Bell |

Modern Art Oxford, UK

BY Nav Haq |

Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

BY Melissa E. Feldman |

Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin, Germany

BY Kirsty Bell |

Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany

BY Michael Hübl |

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, USA

BY Ingrid Chu |

Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden

BY Ronald Jones |

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA

BY Ara H. Merjian |

www.thepoliticsintheroom.org

BY Dan Fox |

Artist, composer and filmmaker Tony Conrad in conversation

BY David Grubbs |

Mark von Schlegell (Semiotext(e), Los Angeles, 2009)

BY Colin Perry |

Owen Hatherley (Zero Books, Winchester, 2009)

BY Oliver Wainwright |

Et tu Brute, then fall, Caesar! 

A project by Jeffrey Vallance

BY Jeffrey Vallance |