Dark Matter. Thomas Ruff & James Welling: Cat. Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Thomas Ruff (born 1958) and James Welling (born 1951) are two of the most well-known photographic artists of the present day. They explore in their works the conditions of visual perception, also in relation to our use of the photographic apparatus, and the conditioning of our view of the world through photographic images. The exhibition “ Dark Matter. Thomas Ruff and James Welling” and the accompanying catalog of the same name focus on works that wrest new possibilities from the photographic image and expand our capacity for imagination. We perceive our environment subjectively; we see and feel it against the backdrop of what we can grasp and understand in images and words that have been handed to us. About eighty percent of the matter in the universe consists of a substance we know little Dark Matter. Does the same apply to the photographic image? Does it hide more than it shows?