Wolfgang Tillmans’ abstract photographic series does not require the use of a camera. All the images are based on experiments in the darkroom, through chance as well as deliberate manipulation in exposing the photographic paper. The fascinating and monumental impression made by colour makes Freischwimmer look very much like a painting. Despite what the title may suggest, the structures in the picture are created purely by light which Tillmans manipulates and moves with his hands, not through the use of free-flowing, liquid chemicals. The delicate, almost black drawings, which condense and dissolve like clouds in parts of the overwhelming green, seem to show the flow of light itself.
Wolfgang Tillmans (*1968)
Freischwimmer 193, 2009
Currently exhibited: Yes (Gallery: From Zero to Action)
Material: C-Print
Size: 227 x 171 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_407
Keywords:
Previous owner: Maureen Paley, London
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Sotheby’s, London, 2017
Wolfgang Tillmans has been creating abstract photographic experiments since 1998. The works do not require the use of a camera as all of the pictures are the result of experiments in the darkroom. The fascinating and monumental impression made by colour makes Freischwimmer look very much like a painting and the production process itself could be described as painting with the means of photography. Despite what the title may suggest, the structures in the picture are created purely by light which Tillmans manipulates and moves with his hands, not through the use of free-flowing, liquid chemicals. They seem to be the physical equivalent of liquid – a play on the medium of photography which we automatically assume is a depiction of reality. The results of these experiments are in each case quite unique pictorial worlds, which Tillmans then scans and reproduces as large-scale prints. The delicate, almost black drawings, which condense and dissolve like clouds in parts of the overwhelming green, seem to show the flow of light itself. They can also be reminiscent of body hair, an association that Tillmans often consciously uses or reinforces by presenting the photographs alongside those of actual bodies.
Photography as a vector of light and colour is a recurring theme for Tillmans: ‘I always think of a sheet of photographic paper […] as an object. That has always been how I think of photography; I don’t think of images as something without substance.’ [1]
The movement that swirls across the large format is referred to in the title: the Freischwimmer, the badge presented by the German Swimming Association to all those who have proven that they can swim. Freedom and movement also play a major political role in Tillmans’ work: as a response to and resistance against the limiting categories of a world that is constantly erecting new borders on many levels.
[1] Wolfgang Tillmans: ‘Paper Drop/Lighter’, in: Jan Verwoert [et al:] Wolfgang Tillmans, London 2014, p. 154.
