Frieze Sculpture Opens With Andy Holden's Bronze Birdcalls

Frieze Sculpture opens with Andy Holden’s bronze birdcalls

Frieze Art Fair’s annual open air sculpture exhibition opens in Regent’s Park on 17 September, running until November 2. Entitled In the Shadows, it is themed this year by artists who address issues of ecological vulnerability. Amongst the exhibits will be Andy Holden’s Auguries (Lament), 2025, three bronzes which are shaped in relation to sound recordings of the fluctuating volume and pitch of birdsong, casting their digital waveforms in metal. In this case, they represent two birds whose future is under threat, a nightingale and a cuckoo, as well as a crow: a bird of mourning and portent.

Holden learned about birds through his father, Peter, who worked for forty years for The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and used to appear on Blue Peter as the resident ornithologist. One earlier version in the series of Auguries, with five bronzes, was acquired by the City of Wakefield and unveiled at the entrance to the Council HQ on 9 August 2023. Fifteen months later, they had disappeared, whereabouts still unknown – they were valued at £196,966.

Last year, another group from the series was acquired by the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands for £150,000. The Frieze Auguries are smaller but will be placed high on recycled telegraph poles and will be priced at £15,000 each or £40,000 for the group. They are being sold through Seventeen Gallery in London or the Hidde van Seggelen gallery in Hamburg.