Visual albums are one of this year’s hottest trends. First came Beyoncé with “Lemonade”, followed by Frank Ocean‘s “Endless”, the precursor to his long-awaited LP “Blonde”. Now, photographer Wolfgang Tillmans enters the fray with “Fragile”. It is a companion piece to his latest EP “That’s Desire/Here We Are” and stars Hari Nef, Karis Wilde and Ash B. Joining the German artist’s four new tracks is his Suicide-esque demo “Fast Lane” from 1986 and “Anderes Osterlied” by theologian Kurt Marti. Combined, the visual album sees Tillmans expanding his artistic language with performance art, hip-hop and a commitment to spontaneity.
“Fragile” premiered this week at The Maureen Paley Gallery in London, but it is also available to stream on Youtube. Before you watch, here is everything you need to know about the project.
Wolfgang Tillmans Was Inspired By Post-Brexit/Pre-Trump Era
Tillmans introduced the songs by stating the conditions in which they were made: “Four songs have been written and recorded this summer in Fire Island and New York, in a time now marked as ‘post-Brexit / pre-Trump”. Thus, “I’m So Näive” sees the artist lamenting the state of the world:
25 years ago I couldn’t have thought this would happen
In disbelief I stand despaired
How did we get into this shit?
Nevertheless, the album is not only about despair: “I wanted the overall feel of the EP to be reflecting the desire to carry on and live our lives in a quest for personal happiness, whatever the circumstances are. We need to protest and campaign, but this shouldn’t stop us from reaffirming love and life, here and now.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNt1zEbjBuq/?taken-by=wolfgang_tillmans&hl=en
The Collaborative Performances Were All Improvised
All the guests involved in the dancing had never heard the music before, so their reactions to the music are all authentic responses. More impressively, Ash B free-styled her scene-stealing guest verse on “That’s Desire”. Using only a blank room with light compositions reminiscent of James Turrell, this approach makes the visual album feel more direct and engaging, recalling his unadorned photography in the Nineties Berlin club scene.
As Wolfgang Tillmans says of this technique: “I’m grateful for the trust and openness each dancer, actor, performer brought to this project – giving everything in a white blank space to the sound of a boombox.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNtzEwOjfkz/?taken-by=wolfgang_tillmans&hl=en
It Wasn’t Initially Intended As A Visual Album
The initial plan was to accompany each song with an individual video. Yet, the decision to make a visual album just made sense when each clip was seen together. Wolfgang Tillmans wrote of the decision that “it became clear, that what was planned to be cut into six individual videos, should not be separated, but should remain as a consecutive sequence of six different moods.” By putting all six performances together, Tillmans and his editor Michael Amstad have created a piece that sustains a certain feeling of rebellion and sexual power in the face of an uncertain future.
This is his second release of the year, after the release of“2016 / 1986” earlier this year.