NO PHOTOGRAPHY - so both my cameras had to be left at the cloakroom, with no guarantee of their safe return. Despite which, I passed dozens of people photographing and videoing all manner of artworks, with no protest from anyone, all afternoon. And I don't just mean cameraphones. There were all sorts of digital devices, from moby's and snappy pocket camera's up to full blown DSLRs and video cameras.

If Frieze are going to insist on this in future, they should make sure it applies to everybody. Admittedly a quality DSLR could produce something that could, potentially, be reproduced for financial gain, but most of the smaller gadgets are just going to be for personal notes, like snaps of gallery names and artists to match up later or for the likes of me to blog, link to and [possibly, in my own little way] promote said galleries and artists.



Given the lack of concern shown by the staff manning the various stands, where spotted plenty of folk blatantly lining up a professional shot, I don't think they were under the impression that anyone was there to reproduce art for any monetary gain!

Heaven forbid there would actually be anything of value there anyway. This is only my third visit to Frieze but it was easily the poorest standard wise. We were in and out of there in 3 hours. Almost half the time it would normally take. I thought most of the work was very poor conceptually and in execution - Badly produced and amateur. I imagine it's the galleries that have been fooled rather than the punters. I only saw A couple of pieces that had actually been sold. Too many gallery pieces I think; 3-D, multi-media, installations, constructions... I don't know how much of this stuff goes into private collections. And what is it with bloody mobiles!?!

Only galleries like White Cube, Waddington etc had anything of any quality. Interesting to see three of the lesser Gilbert & George pieces for sale after the major Tate jobby earlier this year. The Chapmans, Damian Hurst, Tracey Emin and Julian Opie were also prominent. I spotted a few other artists I've seen at Frieze before, but I'm not sure if they were represented by the same galleries this time around or if they were the same pieces or not.

After getting out and taking a few shots of the sculptures in the park we had a nice meal at the African Kitchen Gallery in Drummond Street. I then sat on a train north with a Stella, typing this and listening to the new Radiohead album, reflecting on what I actually liked about the afternoon.

Not an awful lot to be frank. There was a lot of graphic based work, like Tauba Auerbach [warning - horrible page design] & Simon Evans work at the Jack Hanley Gallery. I really liked Ed Ruscha's motel pool prints at the Patrick Painter Inc Gallery. Simon Periton's [another artist with a nasty website. It doesn't seem to do anything!] spray paint on glass at Sadie Coles HQ was a little different from the norm. The David LaChapelle and Ron Arad pieces at the Jablonka Galerie were immense, in many ways.

Then there was Sergej Jensen at White Cube [I think?], William Kertridge [must double check that surname] - double canvas with tripod and mirrors at F14 [who was that?], Ian Forsyth and Jan Pollard's excellent 4 x Kiss make-up application videos at Carla Klein [I think... I'll check all this when I finish these links] and Tatsuo Miyajima - CF Plateua No's 2 & 5... LEDs at the Lisson Gallery.

The flea market at Gavin Browns Enterprise had Rob Pruitt, apparently signing all manner of shit in a "I saw you coming" type way. His piece, Plage Sablonneuse that we saw elsewhere was good though.

That is actually a fair amount but I still won't be going next year. There must be far better talent somewhere [surely] with way less precious overseers. The door staff coped with the ridiculous request to prevent photography as best they could, but obviously a lot of them just let people through... Some mobile phones are at 5 megapixels already, Lord knows what they'll be next year, maybe you could deny entry to anyone with mobile phones as well then... Just in case they might want to pass on any useful info about works they've seen to friends, colleagues or dealers... There are too many events in October in London to put up with this. Hopefully less crowded, better laid out and more discerning in their selection as well.

Categories: Art, London, Photography, Food & Drink