Visual synesthesia
Contemporary German artist Wolfgang Tillmans’ “Folding, Refraction, Touch” is a 19-part installation created specifically for the Busch-Reisinger Museum in 2013. It is making its debut in “Folding, Refraction, Touch: Modern and Contemporary Art in Dialogue with Wolfgang Tillmans,” accompanied by 10 works from other artists, including Oskar Nerlinger, Norbert Kricke, and Isa Genzken, whose works resonate with Tillmans’ interest in surface, light, and the body. The shared words “folding,” “refraction,” and “touch” resonate not only in Tillmans’ installation, but also in works on display alongside it. “We want viewers to look at the exhibition and ask themselves, how could these terms apply?” said Lynette Roth, the Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum and acting head of the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art. Roth curated the show with the help of Olivia Crough, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The...