Zwirner Gallery Review

 

At the David Zwirner gallery in an exhibition called Wolfgang Tillmans: Fold Me, there were two photos that I found pretty interesting; Provo, Utah and the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains (2023) and Lunar Landscape (2022), both by Wolfgang Tillmans. Both of the pictures are landscape type photographs because they show different environments showing landscapes. The former is showing a hilly/rocky/snowy mountainous area while the latter is showing an image of the waves of the ocean. From a geographic perspective, both of the images are contrasting as the former presents chunky mountains/hillside and the latter presents water in motion. These two pictures are amazing based on how detailed they are, such as the ripples of the ocean in the Lunar Landscape and the detailed areas beside the mountains in Provo, Utah and the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains. The way the light reflects on the water in the latter, I can see the water clearly, even when it’s dark. The former shows how light can reflect on a mountainous area from above. 

Lunar Landscape makes me feel peaceful because it helps me calm down my nerves when I feel stressed out and it reminds me of the soothing ocean sounds. Provo, Utah and the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains makes me feel intrigued because the way photographs of the mountains are taken can look ancient and when they look ancient they intrigue me and this looks like an ancient location. Both landscapes can also resemble human personalities because the mountains present the ability to stand tall and strong no matter what, while the ocean represents the ability to be always on the move and never stopping at a single place. Provo, Utah and the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains tells me that things aren’t always as they appear to be. When I look at it from up close, it can look like a snowy village surrounded by mountains, but when I look far away, it can look like a desert. The same would go for Lunar Landscape, because when I see a small image, it looks like an ocean at night, but when I see a large image, it can either look like that or land at night.

According to a review, these two pictures reflect the Earth’s surface but they are entirely different from each other. In Lunar Landscape, the moonlight reflects on the water surface’s ripples and the background reflects a never ending void. The ocean waves are seen crashing in the picture. It would be impossible to differentiate in the foreground without the waves crashing between the ocean and the surface of the moon. The Lunar Landscape picture makes people realize that there is so much more than merely what’s inside and outside. The folds in the lunar picture represent the true nature of life where things are constantly changing and represent how a person should go through with their life that is flexible and not be as rigid.

There was also another picture that I found interesting, and that was the one of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. This photograph represents the complicated and rare drawing of the Sistine ceiling that represents the interpretation of the bible. This represents that humans don’t have to wait for heaven to be happy. For people have the choice to create heaven on Earth. This definition has been termed as a neoplatonic interpretation of the bible. This photograph also represents the phases of spiritual development that human-kind humans experience a very dramatic relationship between god and humans. From this photograph, the viewer can tell that this was early in times of human-kind, because people in this photograph are not wearing any clothes. In early times, people were not aware enough about wearing clothes to completely cover themselves. Moreover, the clothes were not even invented in the earlier time periods. In addition, looking at the photograph, people are seen holding hands which represents harmony and peace. This means that people in early times were free of hatred, judgment, or competition/jealousy. Based on the people in the photograph being seen upside-down and straight, it represents the ups and downs people go through in a lifetime.