Frieze Sculpture Conversations: Nature

For Frieze Sculpture 2023, curator Fatoş Üstek spoke over Zoom to participating artists in a series of wide-ranging themed discussions. In this conversation, artists Yuichi Hirako, Suhasini Kejriwa and Hans Rosenström, whose work at Frieze addressed, employed or questioned nature, talk about introducing their work to the (un)natural environment of a central London park.

Watch the other discussions in this series on monumentalism and performance.

In this discussion: 

Yuichi Hirako: Where I was born there were a lot of mountains, farms and rivers nearby, so for me, that is nature. When I was in London I understood that the nature for me may be different from the concept of nature for others. So, nature is not a fixed concept. 

Suhasini Kejriwal: The only thing that brings me some relief is that the nonhuman world existed before us. For years and years before the human race was born, life existed on the planet. So it will endure, I feel, and that brings me a lot of peace.



Hans Rosenström: I grew up in a small town in southern Finland near the forest, so I spent a lot of time in nature, and was very curious and observing. But it dawned on me – only when I was maybe 20 – that the forest I spent time in is actually a commercial forest and it’s very deprived of biodiversity. When we think about what nature is, most of it has to live with humans; it’s already had to find forms to survive with us.

Read more

Monumentalism: Fatoş Üstek talks to artists Leilah Babirye, Gülsün Karamustafa and Zak Ové

Performance: Fatoş Üstek talks to artists Jyll Bradley, Temitayo Ogunbiyi and Holly Stevenson

Discover more