Imants Tillers ― Journey to Nowhere

For the renowned artist Imants Tillers, whose career spans more than four decades of prolific creative practice, this "journey to nowhere" is neither a homecoming nor a departure, but a fertile and thought-provoking meeting of worlds. The son of Latvian parents who were displaced during the Second World War, Tillers was born in Sydney, Australia, where he would speak Latvian before English and long feel the pull of a distant culture. Displacement, diaspora, and an awareness of the complex weave of cultures mark all his work, from his experiments with installation in the 1970s and trailblazing appropriations in the 1980s to the holistic system of modular (canvasboard) paintings that number 108,224 today.

With contributions from Elita Ansone, Graham Coulter-Smith, Mark Ledbury, Ian McLean, and Tillers himself, this publication traces the artist's career through his most formative journeys, be they physical, collaborative, or philosophical. As the work crosses vast physical, metaphysical, and mytho-poetic terrain, our authors find themselves in Karosta, Papunya, Cooma, and many distant art-historical shores along the way. From this complex odyssey emerges a distinct and creative vision, that of a visual philosopher who identifies as an outsider in the city of his birth and visitor in his homeland.

Elita Ansone is an art historian and head of the Collections Department at Arsenals at the Latvian National Museum of Art. Graham Coulter-Smith is author of Deconstructing Installation Art and The Postmodern Art of Imants Tillers. Mark Ledbury is Power Professor of Art History and director of the Power Institute at the University of Sydney. Ian McLean is Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne. Imants Tillers is an artist who believes that artists should be not only seen but also heard: do not forget the artist's voice!