Gallery Visiting | Tate Modern

Time Conflict Exhibition

Marlene Dumas 

In preparation for my research week I decided to visit the Time Conflict exhibition at the Tate Modern. I chose this particular exhibition because I knew it had photographs from Nazi Time's and also the after effects of atomic explosions. Although this didn't include Chernobyl, Hiroshima's after effect had a similar aesthetic. The exhibition was set up in a really interesting way, the first room was immediate documentation after various conflicts, same day photographs etc. But as the rooms continued the time period after the conflict got longer, going up to 100 years after.

There was a collection taken 15 years after the end of the Second World War, Jerzy Lewczyski took a series of photographs of the Nazi's main headquarters, 'Wolf's Lair'. It's described as "The fragmentary depiction of an anonymous post industrial ruin." in the description plate next to it. What really struck me about these images was the normality of each image. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I looked at them, but each picture looks like any other office headquarter. I found myself shocked at how humane the image the pictures portrayed was. I felt this connected with my concept well; the idea of something so brutally ugly conceived, hidden beauty if you will.

There was a fair amount of documentation from Hiroshima and the surrounding bomb sites, I think this was because the damage was so lasting and it's effects on the people are still relevant. When something is so ugly, people tend to not be able to look away, another idea I hope to bring into my project. This reaction of 'not being able to look away' from the pictures of the people caught in the explosions and aftermath is exactly what I hope to convey through my work. Stepping away from the sadness of what is actually behind the images, much of what I documented could easily be translated into something used within or for a garment. Especially with the burns victims; the texture of their skin (both untouched and reconstructed) had this delicate versus sturdy appearance. This combination is something I will look into when I go fabric swatching next week.

The last selection of pictures that stood out to me were taken during the atomic explosions, immediately after the bombs went off. The shapes of the clouds and the classic 'mushroom' shape would be interesting to try on the stand, especially into a silhouette or applique.

This exhibition was really useful, I now have a lot of secondhand research to work from, especially in the form of shapes and textures. On my way out I went through the Marlene Dumas section and decided that her work was a great example of disfigurement (one of my subthemes). I will look further into her work, and create some responses next week.