Simon Fujiwara Mirror Stage, 2009 - ongoing Mixed media The Mirror Stage is an autobiographical play written and performed by the artist that re-stages his first encounter with a modern artwork, an event that ultimately led him to become an artist himself. In 1993, when he was 11 years old, the Tate St Ives was constructed on the beach in Fujiwara’s seaside hometown, and showed the Horizontal Stripe Painting by the abstract expressionist Patrick Heron. Within a newly designed theatre also situated on the beach – in Miami – Fujiwara’s play re-enacts multiple versions of this first encounter, and features a counterfeit reproduction of the original canvas as a backdrop. Taking us on an increasingly absurd personal journey, the play passes from the myths and clichés of artists child- hoods, through the sexual psychology of abstract painters, to the history of post-war British art, all told through the memories of a repressed pubes- cent boy with the aid of 11 year old actor, Keanu, standing in as a double for the artist.
