Thomas Ruff Interview with Daniel Birnbaum (link)
Photo by Thomas Ruff
No. Cologne was really developing more and more into a party town and a place where artists could show their work and make money. For most of us it was a kind of parallel universe that we looked on with some skepticism, because the galleries in Cologne in the mid- to late ’80s still showed very little interest in what we were doing. But one cannot really go out and party every night, so we weren’t tempted to move to Cologne. Of course we would go to openings there.
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In the very late ’80s I started to sell a lot of work. But none of the things that one associates with the art world of the ’80s really came to Dusseldorf. My photographer colleagues and I really didn’t have commercial success until the ’90s. It’s easy to project things back onto the ’80s, but the truth is we went rather unnoticed through most of the decade. Sometimes I think it was probably a good thing that we were left alone to develop our work without being too disturbed. I had jobs on the side and never thought that I would be able to make a living from art.
The photographs naturally appeal to my aesthetic as a viewer, but I wonder about how limiting the style is. Also how easy. I think everybody and their cat have been doing this kind of work for the last twenty years. And although the best of the work has a still tensility, what can you actually say with it? They could argue, why are you so intent on saying something? On verbalising through an inherently silent medium? They would probably tell me to go make films if I want to tell stories. The time for photography to do that is over now. I don’t believe that yet.
This also bought up my old ideas about minimalism which I was very into five years ago and that has affected many aspects in my life. That simplicity in the way I dress, try to live, architecture, furniture and art that I like. I’m not sure how I’d reconcile the generosity of the medium of photography, the abundance of detail in the world, with my taste for simplicity. But it’s a grand mistake to assume a resolution is always necessary. It isn’t. Often the unresolved ideas are the most fertile soil.
Also, I feel as I’ve gotten the hint of the easy sterility that minimalism can fall into, and through the Danish furniture makers have learnt that it can be life affirming, soft, and humane.
Click the link in the title.
Posted 2 years ago
