Aperture 237: Spirituality

Description

Wolfgang Tillmans guest-edits Aperture's "Spirituality" issue, which features contributions by artists, scientists, and writers who examine the different ways photography has been used to represent humanity's longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. In a time of hyperactive communication, unending consumerism, and political confusion, Wolfgang Tillmans guest-edits an issue of Aperture on the subject of spirituality and its connection to solidarity. "People are touched and moved by experiences of genuine solidarity," Tillmans notes. "Solidarity describes a degree of selflessness, or experiences that remind people of values higher than the pure materialistic culture we're in." This issue, featuring contributions by leading artists, scientists, novelists, and philosophers, will look at different ways of considering humanity's longing for spiritual connection-from the shared sense of purpose behind global mass protests, to the collective spirit of the dance floor, to how image-makers have strived to visualize the intangible and the inexplicable. Key features include: a look at the role of spiritualism in the work of Minor White, Aperture's founding editor; esteemed physicist Peter Galison on the recent landmark image of a black hole; David Swindells's chronicle of underground rave culture in London; Siddhartha Mitter on images of protests in Hong Kong, Cairo, and Standing Rock; a collaborative project by Olivia Laing and Mary Manning; Sean O'Toole on Santu Mofokeng and South Africa's spiritual landscapes; plus portfolios by Susan Hiller, Mare Nero, Harit Srikhao, and more.

Since the early 1990s, Wolfgang Tillmans (born in Remscheid, Germany, 1968) has been creating work that epitomized a new kind of subjectivity in photography, pairing intimacy and playfulness with social critique and the persistent questioning of existing values and hierarchies. Through his seamless integration of genres, subjects, techniques, and exhibition strategies, he has expanded conventional ways of approaching the medium, and his practice continues to address the fundamental question of what it means to create pictures in an increasingly image-saturated world. Tillmans studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design in Bournemouth, England, from 1990 to 1992. In 2000, he became the first photographer and first non-British artist to receive the Turner Prize. He has been the recipient of numerous other awards, including the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography and the Kaiserring (or "Emperor's Ring") prize from the city of Goslar in Germany. His work has been the subject of prominent solo exhibitions at international institutions and is held in museum collections worldwide. A major retrospective of Tillmans's work will be held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2021.