‘Modern Nature’ Brings Works by Ro Robertson, James Jessiman and More to One of London’s Most Famous Streets

Curated by Frieze Studios, ‘Modern Nature’ is an art trail sited along Sloane Street, the official Destination Partner of Frieze London 2025.

New and existing works by artists Maya Rose Edwards, William Farr, James Jessiman, Marc Quinn and Ro Robertson have been selected to respond to the street’s distinct ‘green’ character. 

Quinn’s monumental botanical forms, Robertson’s casts of coastal erosion, Jessiman’s otherworldly biomorphic, Edwards’s folkloric birds and Farr’s atmospheric colourscapes all speak to the history and present of Sloane Street: from its trees and planting by Andy Sturgeon and historic links to London’s first botanical garden, to the leafy ornament that abounds inside the arts and crafts Holy Trinity church. 

The title of the display is taken from the writings of artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman, who lived for a period on Sloane Square. Jarman envisaged ‘modern nature’ as something not stuck in time, but entangled with the changing present, and the works in the art trail approach the natural world as ways into contemporary forms of experience, identity and community. 

Coinciding with the art trail, Frieze on Sloane Street also sees art activations by many of the street’s boutiques and restaurants. Find out more at www.sloanestreet.co.uk. 

Discover More about the Artworks in ‘Modern Nature’  

Maya Rose Edwards, An Alternative Guide to Birdwatching (2022–2025) 

Comprising 12 mirrored magpies, Edwards’s multipart installation unfolds along trees and design features that line Sloane Street. Bringing to life the tradition of counting magpies, each bird is inscribed with a line from an alternative to the famous rhyme ‘One for sorrow, two for joy’. Varying in size and style, they invite visitors to look up and discover details of the environment, while emphasizing collective forms of knowledge and the power of community.  

William Farr, Metanoia 005 (2025) and Metanoia 007 (2025) 

Through a meditative, layered process, William Farr’s paintings emerge from the sensory experience of place and time to creating an immersive experience of the sublime. Two recent paintings, Metanoia 005 and Metanoia 007 (both 2025) have been translated into flags that line Sloane Street, resonating against the colours of the street’s autumn foliage, and suggesting a portal into a deeply personal experience of the environment. 

James Jessiman, Gates of Desire (I) (2025), Gates of Desire (II) (2025) and The End (2023) 

For his first outdoor installation, James Jessiman has created two totem-like sculptures in polished metal. Based on floral and vegetal forms, Jessiman conceives of them as a pair of signal masts: one functions as a transmitter (the one who desires), the other as a receiver (the desired). Walking between the two evokes what Jessiman calls the ‘intensely human feeling of being trapped by desire’, which he relates to our love of flowers. As with all obsessions, frequencies can fade, shift or abruptly cut out. An earlier sculpture, The End, is positioned nearby to a full stop. For Jessiman, each of these works is a portal – a gateway to pleasure.  

Marc Quinn, Our Botanic Selves (Happy Tree) (2024) and Deep Red Desire (2013) 

Based on research at the Herbarium at Kew Gardens, Happy Tree is part of the series ‘Our Botanic Selves’, inspired by preserved samples of botany. The work traces the shape of Camptotheca acuminata in polished stainless steel, creating a mirrored surface. Placed in a landscape, it becomes almost invisible, highlighting the relationship between the environment, object and viewer. In this series, Quinn explores the hidden connections between human and plant life: products of Camptotheca have been used to produce pioneering medical treatments. 

Quinn’s Deep Red Desire represents an orchid, cast in bronze and painted a deep red. With this work, the artist emphasizes how plant life has been invested with ideals of passion and desire, while also provoking obsessive collecting and exploration. 

Ro Robertson, Stone (Butch) (2022) 

Ro Robertson is based in Cornwall, and is inspired by the coastline and shifting tidal zone. The artist created the central jesmonite section of Stone (Butch) by plaster casting directly in the crevices of rock formations at St Ives Bay in Cornwall, capturing the negative space created through erosion, reflecting the power of the sea and the air. Referencing lesbian and trans activist Leslie Feinberg’s 1993 novel Stone Butch Blues, the sculpture embodies the way natural terrain is always shifting and fluid –and reclaims a space for identities that have been often deemed ‘unnatural’.   

‘Modern Nature’ is on display for Frieze on Sloane Street from Friday 10 October to Monday 20 October 2025, coinciding with Frieze London and Frieze Masters in The Regent’s Park (15 – 19 October 2025). 

Further Information

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