Splendor in the Grass: Stunning Freize Sculpture London

Combining fresh air and contemporary art has proven to be a winning formula in several of our adventures this summer. Further proof is the annual Freize Sculpture show in the Avenue and English Gardens in Regent’s Park in London. The installation transforms the park into one of the most stunning sculpture gardens in the world, for just a short period of time. Visiting is a magical experience. Here are the highlights of Freize Sculpture 2019.

Stunning Sculpture Gardens

We’ve been on a journey this summer through some of the most splendid sculpture gardens and parks in the world. We’ve shared what we saw when we visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Sculpture Garden. And the Walker Art Center sculpture garden in Minneapolis.

In July, we were lucky enough to be in London for the annual Freize Sculpture show in the English Gardens in Regent’s Park. So we asked our friends at our favorite hotel in London, the Beaumont in Mayfair, whether should pay a visit. They never steer us wrong, and our time was limited, so we wanted to be sure it would be worth the trip.

Dear reader, it was. The installations are stunning, and the park itself (which we had never visited before) is also wonderful.

Clare Lilley, the Director of Programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, curated this year’s works. Frieze Sculpture will be on display in the English Gardens at Regent’s Park from July 3 – October 6, 2019. If you decide to go (which you totally should), here’s some of what you’ll see. And if you can’t make it, consider this your virtual vacation to a magical place.

The Avenue and English Gardens in Regent’s Park London

We made our first pilgrimage to Regent’s Park on our first-ever visit to Freize Sculpture. We thought we knew what our favorite London park was (we’re looking at you, St. James). But now, we’re not sure. ‘Cause we really love this park.

John Nash designed Regent’s Park in 1811, and almost 20 years later, the London Zoo opened there. Since the mid-1800’s, Regent’s Park has been open to the public. It has many of the elements we love about both St. James Park and Green Park – and yet it has an allure all its own. 

The Broad Walk

We began our adventure at one end of the majestic promenade that runs the length of the Avenue Gardens. The Broad Walk was originally intended by its architect as part of a processional route for the Prince Regent. It’s not quite the Long Walk of Windsor Castle, but it’s pretty impressive.

The Avenue Gardens take their name from this thoroughfare; they’re designed in the Italian manner and filled with blooms all summer long.

The flower beds lining one side of the Broad Walk were all done in pastels the day we visited – a riot of lavender and pale green.

The Fountains

Adding even more whimsy, there are several fountains in the Avenue Gardens. Reproductions of 19th-century designs, they serve as dramatic focal points along the pathways.

The Flower Beds and the Griffin Tazza

The more intimate “ante-gardens” in the Avenue Gardens section of Regent’s Park are also filled with formal flowerbeds, all of which were in full bloom the day we visited. Even on a partially-cloudy London day, the red petals and leaves provided a welcome blaze of color and energy.

The show-stopper, though, is the Griffin Tazza. 

To the left of the path near the center of the Avenue Gardens is a large circular stone bowl supported by four winged lions. It’s known as the Griffin Tazza (often called the Lion Vase). And it’s really lovely.

Running, relaxing, and recreation

Regent’s Park is many things: a thoroughfare used by people on their way to work, or a meeting, or back home. It’s also a place for a stroll with your child. A quintessential London experience for tourists. And a great outdoor gym: lots of people run in Regent’s Park regularly.

It must be an effective run – as we stood near a sculpture, a pair of runners whipped past us so quickly, it was if gazelles had breezed by. 

But you don’t have to be in constant motion: lots of people we saw were serenely sedentary. Sitting under a tree, having lunch. Reading a book. Or napping.

In contrast to the formal Avenue Gardens, the neighboring English Gardens are meant to be far more casual and natural, with the plants and flowering shrubs grouped to resemble native vegetation. The gentle rolling hills are by design – the site was flat before the garden was established.

That makes it the perfect space to transform into one of the world’s most stunning sculpture gardens for fleeting period of time every summer.

Highlights from Freize Sculpture London 2019

Here are six elements of the  stunning sculpture gardens of Freize Sculpture London 2019 that lingered in our minds long after our visit.

1. Robert Indiana

The most-photographed installation and key highlights of Frieze Sculpture 2019 is likely to be Robert Indiana’s  ONE Through ZERO, 1980-2002. The artist has long had a fascination with words and numbers – his “LOVE” sculptures are probably his best-known works. Here, One represents birth.

The numbers ascend through childhood to maturity, and end with Zero, which represents death. We suppose one could call it the circle of life – but how many Lion King references do we really need in our lives right now?

2. Anthropomorphism

Among the highlights of Freize Sculpture 2019 were several works that took a human face or body as a starting point, and transformed it into an even more universal and profound symbol.

An Eavesdropper

Zak Ove’s Autonomous Morris, 2018, is a collage of car parts. Frieze describes the work as a “futuristic yet retro, cross-cultural totemic mask . . . that is a motorized ‘macco.'” A macco is “a person who involves themselves in other people’s business for the purpose of gossip.” 

The work is perfectly placed, right in the middle of a field that was being used for a pick-up game of softball when we visited. The players happily tossed the ball around it, clambered on it, and generally made the sculpture an organic part of their event. Which was surely what the artist had in mind.

Otherworldly Forms

For Freize Sculpture 2019, artist Huma Bhabha has contributed Receiver, 2019, made of bronze and cast from cork and polystyrene. Like her installation on the roof of the Met in New York last summer, We Come in Peace, this work takes everyday materials and turns them into an otherworldly form.

One of the works we found most personally moving is Leiko Ikemura’s Usagi Kannon II, 2013-2018. It’s an arresting sight, even from a great distance. The bronze sculpture of a figure with rabbit ears and a human face in tears “symbolizes universal mourning.” The walk-in bell-shaped skirt is like a protective shrine or a temple. It’s a delicate way to acknowledge that even in the midst of so much beauty and joy, all around us are people who have suffered loss and are grieving. 

3. The Lives of Women

Several of the highlights of Freize Sculpture 2019 are works that address the complex lives of contemporary women in the world.

When I Sleep, 2018, a bronze sculpture by Tracey Emin, portrays a female figure laying on the ground, curled up in a fetal position. 

The deep emotion conveyed by the work was amplified the day we saw it by the presence of a man preparing to lay down to sleep on the bench just beside it. 

Jodie Carey’s Cord, 2019 was produced by casting bronze directly in the soil. “Vulnerable in appearance, yet materially strong, the sculpture references the unbreakable bond between mother and child.”

Laura Asia’s Dream, 2018 is a continuation of Jaume Plensa’s exploration of contemporary portraiture. 

L R Vandy’s work looks innocuous enough, and downright prosaic next to its flamboyant neighbors. But that’s the fun of a sculpture garden – few things are as they seem.

Superhero Cog Woman #01, 2019 is a “tribute to women throughout time, the unmentioned drivers of industry. Cogs are mechanical components used to transmit motion, a perfect metaphor for the role of women in society.” Well played.

4. Disks and Spheres

Circular energy is on prominent display here, as several artists use disks and spheres to provoke thought and conversation. They’re among our favorite highlights from Freize Sculpture 2019.

Strange Temporalities, 2019 by Ghazaleh Avarzamani takes a bright blue slide from a children’s playground and uses it to juxtapose the idea of safe enjoyment and the harsh realities and constraints of actual life.

Tudor Ball, 2019, is another of Lars Fisk’s use of spheres as a way to re-frame common objects in a fresh light. Here, the quintessential English architectural style is transformed.

Emily Young’s Solar Disc III, 2018, “conjures the shape of our solar system – our planet, the moon, the sun, the eye, the mother’s breast, the galaxy.”

Our favorite of these, though, is Joanna Rajkowska’s The Hatching, 2019. It’s a “large-scale replica of the egg of the blackbird, one of Britain’s most common birds.” The work actually emits the sounds of hatching eggs, and invites visitors to draw near and listen closely. We love the deep blue hue – and we love the idea of something new beginning right before our eyes.

5. Migration, Identity and The State

Several works address the current global state of immigrants and the varied responses of the societies that receive them – or not.

On Hold #9, 2019 by Peter Buggenhout is meant to represent a state of incompletion and instability. Inflatable shapes are entwined with rigid materials that both support and restrict. Bold expansive dreams and visions need infrastructure – but they aren’t always given the space they require to unfold. 

A Stranger Holding Two Wings, 2018 by Tai-Jung Um is meant to represent “the idea of an isolated ‘other’ (a stranger).”

Untitled by Ma Desheng comments on “the fragile coexistence between people and government: a precarious balancing act that come crashing down at any moment.”

The most overt of these is Bridges (We are melting), 2019 by Ivan Argote. Three rough-hewn bridges serve as metaphors for ways to connect with others.

6. Wit and Whimsy

We’re not big fans of insects, but we love Celloswarm, 2002 by Bill Woodrow. The work “explores the result of a swarm of bees alighting on and covering an inanimate object. The swarm denies the item’s original function, but in doing so invests the object with a very different and animate life.”

Barry Flanagan’s Composition, 2008, shows a wild-eyed rabbit supported by a trio of elephants during a circus balancing act. It’s both light and weighty.

Vik Muniz’s Mnemonic Vehicle No. 2, 2015 is a life-size sculpture of a 1973 Jaguar E-Type Matchbox toy car. It’s a work “about memory, desire and scale.”

Not far away sits another work based on a childhood toy. Tom Sachs’ My Melody, 2008, is the artist’s take on the iconic Japanese cartoon character.

And then there was the cloud sculpture

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and so it was on the day we visited Freize Sculpture. One of the potential hazards of visiting the stunning sculpture gardens of the world is the weather turning on you.

It had been cloudy on and off all day, and about 40 minutes into our visit, it started to rain. We opened our handy pint-sized umbrella, and kept exploring. And the very next sculpture we saw was this one.

Literally, it was a sculpture of clouds with the words “A little rain never hurt anybody.” Is that crazy, or what? Timing is everything.

The work is by Charlie Godet Thomas and it’s called Cloud Study (Partner Dance), 2019. Two weather vanes move together in the wind, “imitating the basic choreography of dance partners.” It ended up being one of the very best highlights of our visit to Freize Sculpture 2019.

As the sky opened up, right on cue, one of the guys playing the pick-up baseball game right behind me shouted “Just a passing shower. Keep playing!!!” Which they did.

It seems to be the classic British response. Later that day in a cab, our charming driver noted “There’s no such thing as bad weather. Just the wrong clothing.” Words to live by.

Splendor in the Grass: A Stunning Freize Sculpture London

There you have it! Those were our highlights from Freize Sculpture 2019 – it turned out to be one of the most stunning sculpture gardens we’ve visited all year. We have nothing but praise for the organizers of Frieze Sculpture London 2019. Definitely go if you can – and if you do, we hope you leave feeling as joyful and connected to the world as we did.

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