NYAB Event - Hugo Tillman “Betwixt and Between”

Hugo Tillman “Betwixt and Between”

Nailya Alexander Gallery

This event has ended.

Hugo Tillman walks towards a mental state of meditation and acknowledgement in his new series of black photographs. The catalyst that inspired him to explore and photograph culturally significant iconography throughout history originated from his great-grandfather Georg Tillmann’s collection of objects. Acting as a rite of passage, these perpetually dark images are the portal into a space where Tillman can come close to, but never reach his great grandfather’s spirit. They allow him to see but not see, exist Betwixt and Between, and dance on the border of the unknown.

The laborious photography process involved exposure times of 30 to 60 minutes, both indoors and outdoors, of ancient objects found in temples and ethnographic museums throughout the world. The result is a captivating group of minimally illuminated compositions, their definition mysterious. “This is a serious study in seeing everything in nothing,” says Tillman, “…seeing the most amount of information with as little information…a meditative or transformative experience…”

The Venus of Willendorf, shot at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria, connects not only with its conception as the starting point of the history of art, but also with fertility rituals at the dawn of human civilization. Tillman molds this physical iconography into photographic imagery, paralleling the concept of origin throughout history from one generation to another.

In similar spirit are the fertility statues of Lingam and Yoni of the Sokuh Temple in Java, Indonesia. When brought together, they symbolize the passive space and active time from which all forms of life originate, allowing the work to flawlessly move from one state to another.

With time and meditation, the images reveal an opulent and powerful history, crossed by a curtain of black transparency. They are to be seen and not seen, to unveil everything through almost nothing. They are at a crossroad in time, betwixt and between.

[Image: Hugo Tillman “LA PESTE” (2013) C Print mounted on aluminum 48 x 96 in.]