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What say you faithful tree?
In summer’s glory standing tall
while autumn’s minions sneak
to steal your green,
so you go necked into winter.
from: What Say You?
(Eric Ericson)

In this exhibition Cyprus born Yorgos Papadopoulos is showing three versions of the Golden Frisia, the tree he planted in the back garden of his North London home and studio. The tree has a sentimental significance as he planted it at the time his grandmother, with whom he shared the house, passed away. The natural beauty of the ever golden leafage reminds him of her warm personality.

Like many artists before him, Papadopoulos likes to treat his subjects in a serialist manner. a repetition to show differences in perception of light across various times of day, seasons, and types of weather.  To the buddhist in him it signifies the impermanence of life.  The Golden Frisia is the image Yorgos sees from his bedroom window.  He watched the tree grow for twenty odd years through the open window in summer and behind misty glass on winter mornings.

Over the years the only constant in the image was the window frame. Being over a hundred years old they soon face replacement and thus remind him of impermanence again. He won’t go as far as Frank Zappa to claim that the frame is the most important thing in art, certainly not the physical frame: most of Yorgos’s works are unframed anyway.  The metaphorical framing of the artwork in these works has been highlighted by physically incorporating wood veneer into the lamination of the glass.