Simon Fujiwara at Tate St Ives

Young artist Fujiwara represents an interesting departure for Tate St Ives, who usually focus on the St Ives landscape painters and sculptors of the early – mid 20th century. Fujiwara grew up in St Ives but was not impressed by the local scene – rather he longed to escape to bigger and better things, so he moved to Tokyo and then Berlin and Mexico City. He works with installations which create a feeling of archaeological remnants, and the influence of his architecture training at Cambridge University is apparent. Fujiwara cites Tracy Emin as one of his greatest influences, which may explain his enthusiasm for the installation medium.

Source: http://www.carusostjohn.com/projects/frieze-art-fair/

 

Much of his work centres around biography and auto-biography, sometimes incorporating his family history. He envisioned an erotic novel based around his parents lives, and his work explores his distant relationship with his father, who lived on the other side of the world, and wasn’t great at keeping in touch.

The exhibition includes important recent works such as The Mirror Stage 2009–12, based around the story of an encounter with old-school St Ives artist Patrick Heron, and Welcome to the Hotel Munber 2008–1, an erotic novel where the protagonist becomes sexually obsessed with a hotel building.

Simon Fujiwara
18 January – 7 May 2012
March – October: Daily 10.00-17.20, last admission 17.00
November – February: Tuesday – Sunday 10.00-16.20, last admission 16.00
Closed 24, 25, 26 December
£6.50 (£3.90 concessions)
Free for Tate Members
Book online with Tate or call 01736 796226.