Simon Fujiwara
14 Mar - 25 Apr 2015
SIMON FUJIWARA
Lactose Intolerance
14 March - 25 April 2015
Around 7,500 years ago a genetic mutation emerging in central Europe caused the development in some human populations to tolerate the ingestion of milk well into adulthood. As such, humans are the only mammals that continue to ingest the substance throughout their lives. However, more recently some human populations have developed an intolerance to lactose, a sugar found in milk. The frequency of lactose intolerance ranges from 5% in Northern Europe to 90% in some African and Asian countries. This distribution is now thought to have been caused by a natural selection favouring individuals in cultures such as Europe, in which dairy products were made available as a food source.
For his second exhibition at Dvir gallery, Simon Fujiwara presents a new series of works produced by mammals. From a series of paintings by unnamed and uncredited individuals from North Korea's state run art factory, to abstract expressionist paintings made by cows in the northern Israeli Kibbutz of Ein Harod, the new works in the exhibition showcase the 'art and agriculture' of the two nation states produced by the hand and hinds of the anonymous individuals who reside within them. Finally, two series' of abstract works, together, made up of bronze and make-up produced in Germany, track the shift in wealthy European nations from the material and surface to the immaterial, as they search for meaning in a new economic landscape.
Lactose Intolerance
14 March - 25 April 2015
Around 7,500 years ago a genetic mutation emerging in central Europe caused the development in some human populations to tolerate the ingestion of milk well into adulthood. As such, humans are the only mammals that continue to ingest the substance throughout their lives. However, more recently some human populations have developed an intolerance to lactose, a sugar found in milk. The frequency of lactose intolerance ranges from 5% in Northern Europe to 90% in some African and Asian countries. This distribution is now thought to have been caused by a natural selection favouring individuals in cultures such as Europe, in which dairy products were made available as a food source.
For his second exhibition at Dvir gallery, Simon Fujiwara presents a new series of works produced by mammals. From a series of paintings by unnamed and uncredited individuals from North Korea's state run art factory, to abstract expressionist paintings made by cows in the northern Israeli Kibbutz of Ein Harod, the new works in the exhibition showcase the 'art and agriculture' of the two nation states produced by the hand and hinds of the anonymous individuals who reside within them. Finally, two series' of abstract works, together, made up of bronze and make-up produced in Germany, track the shift in wealthy European nations from the material and surface to the immaterial, as they search for meaning in a new economic landscape.