Artist Lens | Simon Fujiwara: We’ve Seen This Before

Simon Fujiwara shows that images don’t just document history; they mediate and construct it.

Images can shape history, identity, and our sense of reality. Whether in paintings, propaganda, social media, or photojournalism, they influence what we believe to be true. Artist Simon Fujiwara explores this power through his character, Who the Bær, a figure without a fixed form, constantly transforming as it absorbs and reshapes the images around it. Without a fixed gender, race, or nationality, Who the Bær mirrors how visual culture constructs and reconstructs meaning in an era where people create, share, meme, remix, and reinterpret images with unprecedented speed.

Engaging with Fujiwara’s work might prompt us to question whether we see pictures as accurate records of history or as highly mediated, ever-changing interpretations. By inserting Who the Bær into this lineage, Fujiwara highlights the instability of images and asks: If history is constructed through images, where does that leave truth?

English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese closed captions are available in the player.


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