Visual and visceral

Technically speaking, Hugo Tillman is a photographer but
his art conceals the man's persona. All you have to do is look beyond the immediate to know who he is.

The visually stunning space of the Elementa art gallery provides an inviting and suitably aesthetic atmosphere for an artist to speak his heart. As the artist-photographer walks in, the first impression is that of pure confidence. The second, he could be a film star – he has an interesting face. The third impression, to which his art seems not to be related at all in terms of competence, is that one need not dwell too much on the fact that he suffers from bipolar disorder.
Hugo Tillman is ambitious and aware of his potential. He makes it clear the minute he looks into your eyes. His own light up when he starts talking about his life and projects.

Tillman has been living in China for the last three years, shooting stills that are considered brlliant; 20 of which hang on the walls of the Elementa art gallery. There has been far too much attention paid to the fact that he is a bipolar in regard to this project aptly titled Film Stills of the Mind. But he clears the air: "I went to China in the first place to give space for any mood adjustment and to spare my girlfriend until I balanced out."

Through the process of psychoanalysis he underwent in order to bring balance to his relationship, Tillman began to pay a great deal of attention to how his brain works. After being cognisant of his psyche, while the West turned its attention towards Chinese art, he started focusing on the artists and the culture of the country.

He realised that many of his counterparts suffered from the same problem – bipolar disorder. This was most evident when discussing the transitions that China has undergone through the Cultural Revolution to the present. The historical situations, obvious in their impact in personal
and specific human conditions, in a
way, clarified and illuminated the related issues.

"During 2004, when I first came in contact with Chinese contemporary art while doing my Masters in Fine Arts at the Pratt Institute in New York, I did not understand Chinese aesthetics," says Tillman.

"I needed to get past that. I began to understand the conflicts and dynamics in current Chinese society and by extension, my recent diagnosis with bipolarity. The challenge to overcome my taste and see what good art is – a marriage of quality and concept – was largely influenced by Clement Greenberg's writings on taste and the relationship to avant-garde and kitsch.

Taste is something learned and is culturally and even sub-culturally specific. I had a process in mind and wanted to apply it to a particular group of significance. The Chinese artists were the perfect fit," he says.

The intimate and substantive photographs of this project – focusing on the childhood, fears, fantasies and dreams of Chinese artists – are not just casual pictures captured with an eye for detail. They reveal a remarkable creative process behind them.

Artist Chen Wenling becomes an emblematic figure wearing a bright red robe posing delicately on antique furniture. The image of artist Shi Xinning depicts him sitting on a floor
of Mao Zedong's Red Book that Tillman created looking through his own book collection. Mao, a Chinese military and political leader, initiated the country's Cultural Revolution.

Titled Long Live with Mao's Theory, the red books were distributed internally and contain words which say "Great Helmsman, Great Leader, Great Teacher and Great Commander. Long Live Chairman Mao". Many of these books had been passed on from one family member to another. Xinning hides his face behind one, illustrating the imprint of Mao's dogma and the Cultural Revolution.

Artist Jiang Jie's recurring dream of having turtles climb over her body, in a sea of gold, is posed in her photograph. The symbol of gold signifies good fortune and the symbol of the turtle signifies longevity in Chinese culture.

"I entered into a dialogue with each artist," Tillman says. During the dialogue, which were either one-off or
a series of meetings, the artists were questioned about their philosophical positions, thoughts on what is it like growing up the way they did and of the seminal moments in childhood and their innermost desires.

From those conversations, Tillman came up with a film scene. He then constructed full-sized sets based on
the psychological profile of each artist and a scene for them to act in. Finally, the interviewed artists were invited to perform within the set and then their performance was documented using a camera.

Interviewing the most significant artists peeled away layers of the complicated history, simultaneously mapping the psyche of the Chinese contemporary art world. The body of work lends shape to an autonomous relationship that is evolving, organically, between Tillman and his generation
in China.

"I specifically wanted to highlight the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and then the period leading up to 1989; Tiananmen and China eventually opening up," he says. "Cultural Revolution created social turmoil in China. The history creates a very specific tension between the present, which is an extremely decadent and materialistic time for China and artists, specifically in Beijing."

Altogether, there are 76 set up photographs taken in three cities in China. Over 20 people worked on the project. "It was very expensive," Tillman reveals. "I had to mortgage my house in order to pay for the project. I did have some help from Nohra Haime in New York and F2 Gallery in Beijing to pre-buy photos, but that only covered about 10 per cent of all the cost."

But what was it that convinced the artists to expose their innermost secrets? "The Chinese have a saying that one can trust another most when one is naked," he says. "In Beijing, it is common to have meetings in the city's saunas. Of course, I was a fellow artist asking each individual about their personal lives. I wanted to know who they are and how we could relate as artists. This was in stark contrast to all of the curators, gallery owners and journalists that swarm like flies around artist studios in Beijing.

"Pretty much all of the artists were very intrigued by the process, and they enjoyed the whole experience very much. It was different," he adds.

Tillman was born in London in 1973. After his father's death, when he was 4, his family had moved to New York
in order to earn a better living. Photography as a career came rather by chance to him because as an adolescent, he was very interested in theatre.

During the formative years he derived inspiration reinforced by the love for the German photographers
of the Becher School and Dusseldorf Academy and also especially for Nan Goldin after her Whitney exhibition in the mid-nineties.

Some of the cinematic overtones of the Chinese project are evocative of American artist Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills that depict female images shot on film sets. However, Tillman insists that the two series are completely distinct, and in fact, the similarity is mere coincidence. The obvious difference in their work is primarily the subject matter.

Tillman has worked with specific individuals
in a specific scene in a much defined culture that is timely and relevant. Personally, he admires Cindy Sherman a great deal. "Her work is part of art history and part of the tradition that I am now a part of," he says. "Sherman also deals in a sphere of social responsibility. Her "Film Stills" work is specifically feminist.

I hope to bring social responsibility more
and more into my work; primarily, during this period by bridging cultural divides."

What is different between Film Stills of the Mind and Tillman's Upper Class project is that the Chinese work is far more than a collaboration.

In the latter, he captured portraits of American high society in Palm Beach and elsewhere, while studying direct descendants of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant society that originated from the Metropolitan Four Hundred in New York City in 1888. The major inspiration was to understand the new world that his mother entered after marrying a man from this group in 1997.

As the concept for the work developed, it became a question of how we can have aristocracy in a democracy.
Just by doing Film Stills of the Mind as a Western white male, the artist has opened himself up to Orientalist attacks. As Tillman comes from a very politically correct educational
past, he owns an inherent Occidental cultural gaze that has a history of projecting Western fantasies on the east often through exoticism.

Nevertheless, his work has been received with great praise on a global level and had earned positive feedback in China – proven by his participation in the Shanghai Biennale, the Beijing Mapgames show at the Today Art Museum and future takes in the Guangzhou Photo Biennale.

At present, Tillman resides in London and misses Beijing greatly. "Beijing is an extremely exciting, dynamic city," he says. But he is a bit of a nomad. With the end of an amazing project in Cuba where he worked in conjunction with the Cuban government, his heart is set on working in Iran with people of different disciplines to document the future with film and photography as media.

The project is expensive, yet again.
"I do not have any more houses to mortgage," he laughs.

"I need to raise $75,000 to do the project. I am going to persist and find a way to make it happen. I am open to donations," he adds, emphasising that dabbling between expensive mediums like film, architecture and photography can empty accounts, but they are necessary for creative evolution. Living with bipolarity disorder can never hinder the artist in Tillman. In fact, the disorder rekindled his interest in psychology.

Many of his recent works are often related to psychological subject matter to continue an exploration into his world.
Sometimes, bipolarity has its advantages. Mania can be very useful for obsessive creative periods.
Unfortunately, the down periods can knock out creativity and production for weeks at a time. "But I am now aware of these cycles. I schedule my work according to the highs and lows," says Tillman.

"We have to continue pushing boundaries, shedding light on darkness," he stresses. "Beyond wanting to always challenge myself, both artistically and intellectually, I hope
to incorporate a social responsibility in my work."

"I do find myself heavily influenced by my understanding of the Chinese contemporary dialogue and aesthetics.

I have learned that taste is relative and can be applied to any aesthetic.
"In Cuba, one can feel the magic. What I did was go to various locations I had picked and simply feel them. This is the magical realism often dealt in Latin American literature through the writings of the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. For example, in an old age home, I felt like I was in a house of children. So, I decided to bring a circus to the home for a surprise birthday party for all of the residents of the home."

The process of feeling one's work from a place was influenced by Andy Goldsworthy, one of his favourite artists.
"With the Iranian project, I really hope to show what an amazing, sophisticated and open contemporary culture exists there."

Rarely do we find an artist as committed to his art as Tillman. With a more spiritual approach in his work, he is ready to explore different societies to bring forth their transitions and its effect on their cultural and social realm.

For emerging photographers or video artists, Tillman has some remarkable advice: "One thing that I have learned is to follow your heart,"
he shares. "It is important to study art history; especially philosophy, literature and criticism. But practically, in professional terms, it is important to make work that comes directly from you. It does not help one's career to always give the viewer exactly what they tell you to do."

"Commercially, the client hires a photographer for their eye and style. The more individual and honest he is, the more identifiable his style will be. You will become known for that style," he concludes.

– Film Stills of the Mind at the Elementa art gallery, Dubai, runs until December 6.

– Layla Haroon is an Abu Dhabi-based freelance writer