To look without fear

The United Kingdom publishers of Young Mungo, a wonderful if masochistic novel about a pair of gay Scottish teens, used this photo by Wolfgang Tillmans for the cover.  

"The Cock" (kiss) (2002)

I wasn't aware of its provenance when I read the book but the prospect of seeing men like these drew me to "To look without fear" at the always crowded MoMA. Tillmans didn't disappoint.

"Cliff" (2008)

"Remy at Spectrum" (2015)

"Dan in glass house" (center, 2020)

Recognizing the Pines in this shot added a frisson to my appreciation of his compositional skills.  Look how the guy's hands mirror the buck's antlers.  I had to wonder if our paths ever crossed.

"Deer Hirsch" (1995)

Tillmans makes music, too.  One of the tracks on "Moon in Earthlight" playing in the exhibit's listening room is titled Ocean Walk.  That's where the TV House, my first share house, was located.  I made sure to stay for the video that accompanies the recording but he didn't include any literal footage. 

Tillman fascinates me more than most artists, particularly because his appetite for documentation is similar to my own in a far more talented way.  

Like Virgil Abloh, he eschews labels and wants viewers to see before they know.  I'd bet that most people don't even bother looking at the exhibition handout.  I wouldn't have been able to figure out this photo if I hadn't.

"heatwave" (2020)

I wonder if Tillmans ever flew at twice the speed of sound?  If not, he certainly captured the beauty of one of the late 20th century's greatest transportation failures.

"Concorde Grid" (1997)

I could imagine taking photos like these.

"young man, Jeddah" (2012); "Shanghai Night" (2009) & "Tukan" (2010)

And this would fit right into my abstractions album.  But there's always something going on below the surface of Tillmans' photography.  

"End of Broadcast I" (close-up,  (2014)

Greifbar 68 (Tangible 68)" (2018)

His humane agenda becomes more explicit in a couple of the rooms.  He photocopied newspaper photos of UN peacekeepers stationed in war-torn locations throughout the world while much of the West partied on.  His selection eroticizes the men even while they stingingly remind the viewer of war's potential cost:  the end of young life off the front pages when nobody is watching.

"Soldiers: The Nineties, Installation V" (1999/2002)

In his Truth Study Center Tillmans employs collage to expose what some with completely different politics have called "fake media."  He developed this approach after realizing " that many global problems have resulted from false proclamations of absolute truths:  the then South African health minister denying that HIV is the cause of AIDS [Tillmans is HIV positive], or the fundamentalist righteous claims by Islamists, whose propaganda I would read on stickers posted around London, or the claim that Saddam Hussein had access to weapons of mass destruction."

Some of the photocopied material really does make you see things like the comparative size of Africa in a new way whether or not you're coming from the same political space as Tillmans.

But Tillmans is also canny enough to lighten things up in "Science Fiction," which he and Isa Genzken constructed from wallpaper, mirror and wood.