Dr. Mary Lee Webeck; Simon Fujiwara; Alexandra Zapruder
Blaffer Art Museum and Holocaust Museum Houston present a two-part dialogue with artist Simon Fujiwara, diaries expert Alexandra Zapruder, and Dr. Mary Lee Webeck, Holocaust and Genocide Education Endowed Chair at Holocaust Museum Houston, in conjunction with the exhibition, Simon Fujiwara: Hope House—on view at the Blaffer through March 14, 2021.
Hope House is an ongoing exhibition built upon years of study into the legacy of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who became famous for the diary she wrote whilst in hiding from the Nazis. Her ascension from a regular girl to a renowned historical figure provides a case study, lens, and continuum for Fujiwara to present objects and artworks that sample from, and survey today’s socio-political media-scape. Since 2017 he has been erecting life-scale replicas of the Anne Frank House’s “build-your-own” model as exhibition architecture to present artifacts collected and analyzed from a diary-like perspective. Inspired by Anne’s personal form of record keeping, as well as the way her story embodies an enduring stand against the escalating dangers of a fascist regime, Fujiwara confronts embedded pathologies within pop culture. Collaging objects from the present into his enlarged facsimile of the House, he sculpts the everyday into an evolving portrait of what happens when hopeful ideologies meet the mechanisms of consumer culture.
This event is FREE and open to the public. Please register for Zoom meeting information.
Learn more about the exhibition: https://blafferartmuseum.org/simon-fujiwara
