Simon Fujiwara - Jersey Sweat Relax-Revolution Scarf with Shred Detail for Sale

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Jersey Sweat Relax-Revolution Scarf with Shred Detail, 2019

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About The Work

Fujiwara takes the symbolism of the guillotine and applies it to his Whitechapel edition, a scarf made from cotton jersey.

Invented in the French Revolution, the guillotine replaced earlier execution methods. Previously peasants and commoners sentenced to death were hung and the nobility decapitated by a sword yielding executioner. Partly in response to the high number of executions taking place and also to a new democratic ideology, the nation needed an efficient single form of execution “for everybody”.

The guillotine symbol has been monogrammed, turning it into a repeating motif, hinting at the way aesthetics today, through fashion and through hyper capitalism and mass media, have disrupted the value of historic symbols, or indeed any symbols as marketable commodities. The guillotine - a machine that once signaled terror- is now a “cute” motif. The fabric on which the motif is printed, a grey sweatshirt jersey was commonly associated with lower classes as a ‘lazy’ or ‘low’ material. Since the ‘athleisure’ and fitness ‘revolution’ as well as the breakdown of aesthetics in relation to wealth, the material is worn across the board by all classes and wealth brackets. The two symbols of democracy, a world ‘for all’ are brought together, for Fujiwara, a positive thing.

Fujiwara intends for the work to be either hung on a wall or worn. The shredded detail can be seen as homage to the guillotines original function, but also as a way for the wearer to adapt the scarf to their individual style.

Courtesy of Whitechapel Gallery

About Simon Fujiwara

Simon Fujiwara is known for his autobiographical explorations of identity in immersive installations that include sculpture, performance, video, and photographic elements. His works regularly interweave personal history and more universal assumed narratives to congeal fact and fiction. He acknowledges emotion in the process of storytelling, and exposes ways in which irrational feelings or inaccurate memories might even affect larger political and social interactions. He is often reconstructing his narrative throughout an installation, integrating personal opinion and preconceptions to mold his links to reality. His projects—including an investigation of lactose intolerance and its mythic connection to natural selection, a fabricated narrative attached to a snapshot taken of his mother in the 1960s, and an imaginary Incest Museum—often have written fictional content associated with them as well, expanding his practice to include the continuation of his own perspective.

Fujiwara has exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Palais de Tokyo, Pairs, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, Tate St Ives, United Kingdom, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Artonje Centre, Seoul, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Guggenheim Museum, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco, and Castello di Rivoli, Turin, among others. He participated in the Sharjah Biennial (2013), Gwangju Biennale (2012), Shanghai Biennale (2012), Venice Biennale (2009), and São Paolo Biennale (2010). He was awarded The Cartier Award by the Frieze Art Fair in 2010, and an Arts Foundation Fellowship Award National Prize by the United Kingdom in 2009, among others. His theatre work, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” was featured in Performa 11 and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.