Simon Fujiwara, Fabulous Beasts (Vanilla Mink), 2016

'Fabulous Beasts' is a series of fur coats purchased in and around Berlin dating from 1950-2000. The coats are shaved to remove all traces of fur and to reveal the archaeology of their production including manufacturers stamps, painstaking patchwork detail, dye marks and animal skin diseases and blemishes. The coats are further deconstructed based on the tailoring pattern and reconfigured into flat skins mounted on a stretcher as tokens of a defunct idea of wealth. Reminiscent of anthropological hides and early man’s clothing the works trace the changing nature of taste, value, luxury and society. In their new state the skins appear both primal and luxurious in an age where the deeper knowledge of production history is fetishized as much as the finished products themselves.
Fabulous beasts is a series of fur coats purchased in and around Berlin dating from 1950-2000. Through
a highly laborious process of shaving, all traces of fur are removed to reveal the archaeology of coats’ production. The shaved coats reveal manufacturers’ stamps, painstaking patchwork detail, dye marks, and animal skin diseases and blemishes. The coats are further deconstructed, based on the tailoring pattern, and reconfigured into flat skins, which are mounted on a stretcher as tokens of a defunct idea of wealth. With references to Arte Povera and reminiscent of anthropological hides as well as early man’s clothing, the works trace the changing nature of taste, value, luxury and society. In their new state, the skins appear both primal and luxurious in an age where the deeper knowledge of production and history is fetishized as much as the finished products themselves.

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Simon Fujiwara

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Simon Fujiwara

Exhibitions