“I’m suspicious of things that make sense,” said the New York-based artist Pope.L, who passed away this year aged 68. I’ve often felt that performance art, in which Pope.L excelled, has a special ability to be ambivalent, avoiding a single meaning. A lot about the world today doesn’t seem to “make sense:” perhaps performance art has a particular role to play in it again. The program for Frieze New York 2024 has a special emphasis on performance, including a new, co-commissioned performance by Matty Davis on the High Line (p.16), a collaboration with Performance Space New York (p.20) and a concert by Ellen Fullman (p.13). Picking up on this theme, the issue explores the iconography of Alvin Ailey (p.52), how galleries are embracing live art (p.10) and Dodie Kazanjian’s work to put contemporary art and opera in dialogue (p.50). Tess Ayano’s story on rising performance stars produced the portrait of Cole Escola on our cover. It reminds me a little of Peter Hujar’s images of Ethyl Eichelberger: both, like Pope.L, lost too young. Perhaps another thing performance art can do right now is remind us to cherish the living.
- Matthew McLean, Creative Director, Frieze Studios & Editor, Frieze Week
