Guy Tillim: Hotel Universo

The first, from which the exhibition gets its name, focuses on the built environment, reflecting the ways in which history and the passage of time are inscribed through the processes of construction, maintenance and disrepair. The images were taken in Mozambique, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2003 and 2007, their abstracted form offering the viewer a window through which to observe the brick-and-mortar residue left by the collapse of regimes. Tillim states:

'I didn’t determinedly set about photographing vestiges of colonial power. I was simply fascinated by the place I found myself in, the sensation of it, and the feeling of being utterly lost in fact, so different was this environment from the one I grew up in.'

Dar es Salaam and Abidjan takes its cue from street photography and places emphasis on individuals. The pictured crowds engage in commerce, travel and other acts towards the fulfilment of needs. Tillim combines elements from different frames to create new scenes of urban life ‘so particularly ordinary [they have] effortless grace’. He adds:

'I suppose I’m playing with time really. The scenes all happened; not in that sequence maybe, but with another throw of the dice, who knows ?'