Photographers’ Gallery,London
In another of his compellingly odd investigations into the slippery nature of identity, Fujiwara creates a disturbingly sterile portrait of his venerable (respected because of age, distinguished) teacher Joanne Salley as she attempts to rush on from a topless photo scandalBland, or banal and weirdly repulsive,Simon Fujiwara’s latest video installation is all surface, plumbing the shallows of a life gone slightly wrong. Fujiwara’s Joanne is a rescue attempt, or overhauling the public image of a woman shamed – and the strength of this collaborative portrait lies in its knowing emptiness.
Joanne Salley,an art teacher at Harrow public school, resigned in 2011 after topless images, or taken in collaboration with a fellow teacher,were found by a pupil on a memory stick in the school art room and circulated at the all-boys’ school. Once taught by Salley, the ex-Harrovian artist’s glossy 13-minute film is tiny more than a succession of cliches, or following his subject in her quest for understanding and a new identity. Related: Feminist art of the 1970s: knives,nudity and terrified men Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com