Bubblegum Club

Tag: materiality

  • Wolfgang Tillmans: Fragile – A Question to The Art of Photography and its Materiality

    Wolfgang Tillmans: Fragile – A Question to The Art of Photography and its Materiality

    An activation of materiality. A display of careful calculation. Grids and lines are followed in a non-conforming rhythm. Architecture is used as a curatorial device. An installation masterpiece. A photograph as a test. A photograph as a material object. A photograph as a sculptural object. Images untouched by digital manipulation. Welcome to two decades of Wolfgang Tillmans embodied under the title Fragile. Fragility apparent in both subject and material artefact.

    Patient, yet enthusiastic spectators gather to consume the address by JAG’s curator-in-chief, Khwezi Gule, at the press opening of Fragile. As Gule leaves, Tillmans begins to guide his audience, manoeuvring eager bodies through the expanse of his show. Stepping into the first space you are frozen in your tracks by one of his most well-known works, Lutz & Alex sitting in the trees (1992) – a large-scale photograph of two figures, naked torsos exposed, finding minimal cover with their vinyl jackets loosely styled on their frames. But the amazement, appreciation and emotion that his works instil are yet to be explored by us, his immediate audience.

    Tillmans invites his audience to interact with Sendeschluss/End of Broadcast by asking us to step closer to the black and white pixel image. Just close enough to prevent your face from touching the surface. And it is then revealed to the naked eye that this image is constructed of colour. This opening to the show, comprised of over 200 works spanning from 1986 – 2018, invites a word of caution from the artist, warning against first impressions, and encouraging a second look.

    ‘Lutz, Alex, Suzanne & Christopher on beach’

    With work that holds an eminent position in the world of contemporary art, the artist is known for his perpetual redefining of the photographic medium as an artefact of materiality and as an image constructed by light. Led by an unquenchable curiosity, Tillmans navigates the world and reproduces that which he observes with his eye by occasionally placing a camera in front of it. His abstract works and more sculptural pieces include Paper Drop, the Lighter series (one of Tillmans’ very view series of work) and Freischwimmer / Greifbar. Through his experimental approach, Tillmans has developed the photographic medium, both the technical and aesthetic potentialities of the practice further.

    Intimacy, compassion and familiarity translate in image form creating a tangible emotion. An observational modus operandi characterised by a humanist approach to the complexities of the world. Tillmans’ oeuvre comprises of his club culture photographs from the 1990s, abstract works that find their footing in extreme formal reductionism, images narrowing in on the beauty of the everyday, and depictions that display a rigorous perception containing a grounded socio-political awareness.

    ‘Freischwimmer / Greifbar’

    In discussion with the German photographer he elaborates on his interest in objects of the everyday and the narrative of his work by explaining that for him these objects are not necessarily banal objects. His train of thought continues to the value of such objects, “I’m very aware of the values potentially attributed to the things that I photograph, but want to leave the absolute values also quite open.” Explaining this statement through various examples of images in the exhibition, he ends off with the following trajectory, “I choose not to influence. I choose things to settle. It’s the narratives that are usually non-linear objects, and people and places in the pictures and installations. The narratives and associations are definitely more driven by challenging value systems.”

    Reflecting on his work, Tillmans expresses that he does not see himself as a deconstructivist but rather leans towards what he refers to as a nostalgic modernist. “My way of installation at first glance is sort of not modernist but maybe actually it is because there is a certain purity and vigor and a trust in a linear development. Not just in atomization. It looks so super multi varied but actually there are, rhythms, there are recurring themes…”.

    Contrary to tradition, Tillmans does not often work within the frame of series. After the act of taking his photograph, the need to recreate a similar image is worn. “Because I like to make work that is coming from an actual engagement with a subject matter in the here and now and not just from the idea that I should make another one like this.” Tillmans here refers to a feeling of intensity – an instinct to create. Over 30 years of photographing he now has “families of pictures”.

    ‘Deer Hirsch’

    Connecting the works on display to fragility, Tillmans explains that Fragile fulfills the purpose of working as a title and is not a defining label in itself. There are however moments of fragility captured in an expression, in an emotion felt or in the medium of photography. Then there is the fragility of appropriating the world as can be seen in the work Truth Study Centre. Attracted to the economic nature of the photographic medium, Tillmans equally enjoys the ability it has to facilitate conversations around physically concrete and sculptural issues.

    Tillmans sees the art as something that allows him to speak about the physical world and simultaneously penetrate something that is more psychological. “It’s so able to record emotions and relations and it can manipulate a lot and pretend a lot but used sensitively it is an incredibly psychological medium.”

    What draws one to a Wolfgang Tillmans show is more than the images displayed, in part you are pulled by his curatorial method that becomes an artwork in itself. Looking back on his journey with curation, Tillmans explains that his current mode of display was not something which he had planned to be a recurring part of his practice. He states, “I didn’t plan to come up with a way of making art that would leave ultimately only myself to install the exhibitions and it ended up this way.” It was with his first exhibition in 1993 that he first employed this method of display resulting in curators asking him to bring forth his particular grammars and syntaxes in shows. “…it really is to try to represent the way how I look at the world. Which is not just ordered in sections and it’s not all in a line. It’s allowing different attitudes.”

    ‘Paper Drop’

    An agreement to the fragility that defines us as individuals and that influences our relations to one another is viewed as strength. Since his adolescence, Tillmans has been acutely aware of this interplay which is marked throughout the expanse of his artistic practice. Fragile has been used by Tillmans before, as an early artist name as well as the title of a music project he was involved in. Teasing out new ways of making with frailty, failure and rifts, these make reference to the imperfection of life and open up diverse perspectives on the materiality of the above.

    Subjectivity with the potential to transform. Providing an extensive overview of his complex work this exhibition is a showcase of the various shapes of artistic expression of Wolfgang Tillmans. The show includes photography from large scale installations taking up an entire room, to small post card images and even smaller polaroids of 90’s party culture, publications, sculptural objects, video content and the installation practice particular to the artist. Activating discourse, an exchange of reaction takes place when presented with new scenarios. Space is given for mystery, deep emotion and speculation.

    A sculptural practice wrapped around economy. An absolute awareness of the materiality of, not only his medium, but life itself. The deeply psychological nature of his portraits ingrained. To see as never seen before. Attending this show is a perception warp itself and a realization of fragility, a realization of your own inevitable fallibility and life span. If you enjoy walking out of your comfort it is definitely where you should be.

     

    Wolfgang Tillmans: Fragile will run to the 30 September 2018 at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. I promise there is no regretting it.

    ‘Headlight (f)’
    ‘Anders pulling splinter from his foot’
    ‘astro crusto’
  • The use of fabric in art for preservation, reflection and identity

    The use of fabric in art for preservation, reflection and identity

    Throughout the history of art, artists have appreciated the versatility that fabric possesses. Viewed as clothing, skin and a source of identity, it can be manipulated and molded into an object (or subject) with conceptual depth. It allows for the creation of soft sculptures, or be used as aids in performance, but does not deny artists the ability to project a sense of hardness, scale or visual weight. Textiles can also be used as a presentation of and reflection on colonialism and global trade, as with the work of UK-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare with his investigations of political and social histories. Fabric also offers a way to think about personal histories, as with the case of Accra-based artist Serge Attukwei Clottey‘s work My Mother’s Wardrobe.

    ‘My Mother’s Wardrobe’ by Serge Attukwei Clottey

    Clottey’s work generally examines the power of everyday objects. However, the above mentioned work is potent in the way that it gives an avenue for thinking about the use and signification that fabric offers artists and viewers. Through this work he explored the connection that fabric can create between mothers and their children. In this work he used performance as a way to interrogate gender roles along with notions of family, ancestry and spirituality. This was a personal work inspired by the death of his mother, and the performance unpacked the concept of materiality with the intention of honouring women as the collectors and custodians of cloth that serve as signifiers of history and memory. Clottey presents a vulnerability in the way that he brings across his own experiences, while inviting viewers to think about their own personal connections to his subject matter.

    While is broader practice involves photography, installation, sculpture and performance, this work highlights the significance of fabric when thinking about personal and collective cultures, histories and intimacies.

    Artwork by Turiya Magadlela

    Johannesburg-based artists Turiya Magadlela uses fabric as her primary medium, cutting, stitching and stretching it over wooden frames. Her use of commonly found fabrics, such as pantyhose and uniforms brings the past life of the fabric into the exhibition space, where it’s very presence creates animated associations in the minds of viewers. Her use of familiar fabrics allows her work to oscillate between abstract art and a collection of memories interwoven with articulations of experiences of womanhood, motherhood and narratives from Black South African history.

    Looking at the work of Clottey and Magadlela the significance of fabric as a container of history and memories becomes clear. Its physical and conceptual malleability highlights its ability to be a tool for preservation, reflection and identity.

  • Io Makandal – To Meet The Threshold

    Misconceptions about being an artist abound within society. Most people think we just sit around aimlessly until inspiration strikes. But if To Meet The Threshold has shown me anything, it’s the value of the dogged persistence of an artist striving to fulfill their vision. The installation enveloping the viewer is just one of a series of what Io Makandal calls “tactile drawings,” made over the last two years as part of her multidisciplinary creative practice. In the past however, these frame-shattering drawings have usually been restricted to a single wall or a corner. At No End Contemporary Art Space, Makandal had the entire space to work with. The long narrow structure of the gallery unsurprisingly caught the artist’s eye, a concept took hold and the necessary arrangements were made with the gallery to hold a show.

    In a previous article I observed how, for me, No End had begun to read as one of Johannesburg’s many alleyway’s, albeit, with good lighting and artworks on sale. It is this feature that I again felt was highlighted beautifully through Makandal’s intervention. The single corridor pulled the viewer in one direction, and gave no opportunity to tip toe around the installation, or view if from a distance. From the onset it outlined clear rules of engagement with its audience; enter and experience. Be engulfed. What were we asking to experience though? There was clear evidence of urban existence: broken chunks of concrete, dirty traffic cones, piping, housing insulation, and refuse, windswept around the gallery, suspended in mid-air, littering the floor. Alongside this urban debris were signs of natural life, or what was at least once alive; dead leaves, dead palm branches, twigs and a skeleton, which I assumed had once belonged to a cow. The tension set up between the natural (in its deceased and decaying state) and the urban, which for us in the twenty first century is our area of primary habitat, was striking.

    But it didn’t simply end there. If it had I might be writing how the installation was a reflection of the overwhelming urbanisation and the effect this has on nature. However, the third element (if I can so crudely group them like this) that I picked out was that of pure line and colour. Coloured string hung from the walls and the ceiling, draping down onto the floor. Neon duct tape covered the surface of the gallery, supporting objects on the wall or cutting through the harsh geometric surrounds. And little fluffy balls were pinned everywhere, little splashes of colour that then expanded when a balloon or party plate came into view. Makandal’s work makes me imagine what might have happened had Joan Miro worked in Johannesburg as an artist. There is the grunge and grit of this urban stew mixed in with transcendental moments of colour and form that seem to have jumped in from another dimension.

    Makandal’s work has a formal consistency that, even in three dimensions, reads similarly to one of her painting or drawing works. This similarity is not however where the work ends, for through the reference to the two dimensional works, a tension is set up. A tension between two dimensions and three that starts to bring to the foreground materiality, spatial concerns, and probably most intriguing for me, the human body. In a world of overwhelming complexity, detritus and structure, there was a single direct reference to the human body, a curled finger protruding from the wall, beckoning to the viewer. Asking to make the most solemn of vows, a pinky promise; we are invited to reengage with the possibilities that art present for our present reality.