The stop-motion animation played on the encased monitor of this sculptural video animation, depicts Who as cut out figure entering and exiting a phone, at times floating among found imagery from dating sites, and represents the figure’s explorations of online dating and the stereotypical gender definition this can entail.
Simon Fujiwara’s project Who the Baer was developed during the lockdown in the spring of 2020. The artist created a unique cartoon character in the form of a denim wearing bear with a golden heart and an uncontrollably long tongue, that seemingly has no gender, race, sexuality or even a clear design. Without an identity, Who exists only as an image, a status that allows them the freedom to roam a world of online images, appropriating characters, identities, aesthetics and guises in a greedy search for a ‘self’.
Fujiwara’s existential cartoon character oscillates between subject and symbol, being and thing and is a tool for the artist to investigate cultural anxieties around identity and its relationship to the performativity of image culture. Through Who the Baer, Fujiwara explores complex topics using the reductive logic of the cartoon universe to expose the normalizing power of the capitalist image culture we inhabit.
COMPONENTS INCLUDED IN SALE: -Monitor encased in foam-core and cardboard frame, mounted on MDF heart-shaped board. -Animation file -Certificate of Authenticity
INSTALLATION SPECIFICATIONS: -Work can be installed leaning against wall, or in corner (as depicted), or could be mounted on wall. (Mounting system would be required) -Dark space not required
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