Elementa is pleased to present a series of works from the British born NY artist Hugo Tillman’s show “Film stills of the mind”, curated by Sofia Urbina. This body of work is the result of Tillman’s many months spent in China. While the West turned its attention towards Chinese Art, Tillman was focusing on the artists and their culture.

Each work starts with intimate personal interviews with the artists, focusing on their childhood, their fears, their fantasies and dreams. “His strategy is to whip past the surface value of these artists’ works and immerse himself in the murkiness of their individual sub-consciousness. Much of “Tillman’s Alice In Wonderland”- style surrealism places these artists where they haven't been before: directly confronting the demons and delights of their own buried sub-conscious. It is a zone that sometimes separates the artist from his work and the social from the personal” (Mathieu Borysevicz)

Tillman then constructs full-sized sets based on the psychological profile of each artist. Finally he invites the artist back to perform a scene within the set. These creations of the artist’s own fantasies, and possibly vulnerabilities consequently bring out a still deeper understanding of a group of people connected by art in a country with a recent and oppressive past, that is being thrust into the 21st Century at an alarming rate;

The exhibition will survey photographs of leading artists in China, including Ai Weiwei, Jiang Jie, Chen Wenling and Yue Minjun among others. This is Tillman’s first solo show in Dubai. His work has been shown in London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Mexico City, Beijing, Los Angeles, Miami among other cities.

In Autumn 2005 Tillman at the age of 32 was diagnosed with Bi-Polar disorder. This was a driving factor towards embarking on this project, he states “I am beginning to understand the conflicts and dynamics in current Chinese society and by extension my recent diagnosis with bipolarity. As I begin to try to peel back the layers of the complicated history of China, I am beginning to decipher and decode the conflicts, real and perceived. This work begins to lend shape to an autonomous relationship that is evolving organically between myself and my generation with China. It is the first of what I hope to be many forays into China and with Chinese artists moving forward.”

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