Simon Fujiwara : Joanne

Interesting video installation at the Photographers’ Gallery of a work by Simon Fujiwara.

As some of you may hay realised I don’t have much patience for video art but I did like this one. I like the way it was introduced in a white room by large light boxes with stunning photographs of the subject of the film, Joanne. The video itself was then on a screen facing the back wall at an angle.

The film was about the artist’s old art teacher from when he was at Harrow School. It looked at how women define themselves and how others define them. It felt a bit like a film about a person as a brand. Fujiwara had met her again 15 years after they had been at the school and they worked together on this film. It became clear that she had left her job at the school when topless pictures of her had appeared and the film discussed how she doesn’t want to be defined by that.

Closes on 29 January 2017

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