Going to the Frieze Art Fair 2012

Hat ASOS

Outwear Made in the Earth (Hong Kong)

Dress Primark

Stockings Limi Feu

Boots Pedder Red (Hong Kong)

Earring forever21

I love the bow detail and the coral/black colour code of the dress but it's a little too feminine when worn on its own. So I quite like how the masculine shoulder-padded jacket and the fedora hat toned down the girliness of the shirt dress. I also aimed for a sophisticated look by keeping my makeup simple so that the emphasis went to the redness of the lips.

Trivia: a Swiss fashion photographer/designer took some picture of me in the fair and thereby contributing to my first fashion snapshot experience.

Rings (from left) purchased in Amsterdam; E-hyphen World Gallery (Japan), Primark

Bracelets (from top) H&M; souvenir from Egypt

A closer look at my nail colours of the week. I am actually quite proud of my steady hand since I did the French tips with nothing but a thin nail polish brush ;)

Rings (from left) from Amsterdam; Accessorize

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Credits: Thanks to Naoko for this awesome picture of me contemplating in front of an artwork :)

Yesterday I went to the Frieze Art Fair 2012 with my classmates. The exhibition space was huge, with 7 rows of galleries interspersed with performance spaces, stores and cafes. It reminded me of the yearly HK Art Fair except for the fact that it is so much larger in scale and that they have more interactive events going on - apart from talks, they also had film commissions, installations, and live performances alongside a sculpture garden where works of art are exhibited in the beautiful Regent's Park.

One interesting thing about the artworks on display is that various artists loved to play with different mediums with mirror being one of the popular materials used. So I decided to make a list of the artworks involving mirrors, and here are some of them (with my reflection being interestingly a part of it).

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And in case you wondered what interesting artworks they had in the fair, here are two of my favourite pieces:

I love how the entire artwork is made with surgery blades in the form that resembled a mosaic work or a stained glass window. Not only is this visually intriguing, it is also a fresh take on the motif of stained glass which Hirst executed with bugs and butterflies. I also find the title, "Invading the City of Light," very apt as the painting is shining at a distance but a closer look would reveal the hidden danger and sense of unease created by the extensive use of scalpel blades in different sizes and shapes. I really like this juxtaposition of danger and beauty, life and death, light and darkness, the binary oppositions being Hirst's continual thematic pursuit.

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Image from Lost at E Minor

"Seismic Shift":

- Relating to or caused by earthquakes or artificially produced earth tremors

- Of enormous proportions or having highly significant consequences

I really love how the artist created a wasteland in a gallery space with iconic artworks by (from left) Jeff Koons, Yue Minjun, Takashi Murakami, Barbara Kruger and Damien Hirst (am I missing anyone?). It is true that the understanding of this work depends on the viewer's knowledge of the contemporary art scene, but thanks to globalization and the marketisation of contemporary art, a lot of people must have recognize some of the artworks in the picture even when they are unable to name the work or the artist.

The title of the work, "Semsmic Shift," is a very intriguing one. Is the earthquake resulted from the impact the artworks have on society, or is the artist suggesting that all of these works cease to be valuable in an apocalyptic world? With postmodernist art heavily concentrated on ideas and the concept behind a work of art, would these artworks become useless and meaningless when they are rusted and worn down, and the message they tried to convey have been lost in time?

On a side note, I personally tend to see this work as the artist's question of the value of modern art. I believe he has a particular love-hate relationship with Hirst as his representation of "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (i.e. the shark) is quite satiric - the shark looks like he is in pain and in protest of how he has been killed simply for the sake of art.

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So this is my OOTD and a small review of the Frieze Art Fair 2012.

Now, it's time to go back to my feedback essay and think about "the value of culture"...