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| These anti-Brexit posters show just what we lose by leaving the EU | These anti-Brexit posters show just what we lose by leaving the EU |
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| The artist Wolfgang Tillmans has said what I feel: “What is lost is lost forever,” he warns over a blue and violet image of the Earth from above, apparently one of the photographer’s pictures taken through the window of a passenger jet – an image of boundless space, longing and desire. | The artist Wolfgang Tillmans has said what I feel: “What is lost is lost forever,” he warns over a blue and violet image of the Earth from above, apparently one of the photographer’s pictures taken through the window of a passenger jet – an image of boundless space, longing and desire. |
| Related: How the world caught up with Wolfgang Tillmans | Related: How the world caught up with Wolfgang Tillmans |
| He is talking about the EU. Tillmans has created a series of passionate posters arguing why Britain should stay in Europe and urging young voters in particular to make sure they are registered to vote in the EU referendum before 7 June. | He is talking about the EU. Tillmans has created a series of passionate posters arguing why Britain should stay in Europe and urging young voters in particular to make sure they are registered to vote in the EU referendum before 7 June. |
| Should artists weigh in and lecture people on why we should vote to remain in the EU? This is territory where many have already been stunned into silence. | |
| In a pre-emptive strike, the Brexit side scored easy points against cultural celebrity Emma Thompson after some comments she made at a film festival about what Britain might look like out of Europe. The lesson appeared to be that members of the cultural elite – who include Turner prize-winner Tillmans – are advised to stay quiet, or risk being mocked as part of the Europhile establishment the leavers scorn. | |
| Nobody commissioned Tillmans to make these 25 overtly political works, which combine lyrical images with bold words. He is acting on his own initiative (aided by his London and Berlin studio assistants) as a citizen concerned the remain campaign lacks passion. “We have reached a critical moment that could prove to be a turning point for Europe as we know and enjoy it – one that might result in a cascade of problematic consequences and political fall-out,” he writes on his website, where the posters are available to download and share. | Nobody commissioned Tillmans to make these 25 overtly political works, which combine lyrical images with bold words. He is acting on his own initiative (aided by his London and Berlin studio assistants) as a citizen concerned the remain campaign lacks passion. “We have reached a critical moment that could prove to be a turning point for Europe as we know and enjoy it – one that might result in a cascade of problematic consequences and political fall-out,” he writes on his website, where the posters are available to download and share. |
| “What is lost is lost forever” is the one that moves me most because it expresses exactly what is at stake. All the passion about the EU debate may seem to be on the Brexit side, with their enthusiasm for national sovereignty and visions of a sceptred isle. | “What is lost is lost forever” is the one that moves me most because it expresses exactly what is at stake. All the passion about the EU debate may seem to be on the Brexit side, with their enthusiasm for national sovereignty and visions of a sceptred isle. |
| This emotion has suddenly turned from a strength to a weakness, as damning data on the potential economic woes of a Brexit piled up and Barack Obama delivered his cool blow. Patriotic feelings are all the Brexiteers appear to have. In place of economic reason, they resort to absurd vitriol. | This emotion has suddenly turned from a strength to a weakness, as damning data on the potential economic woes of a Brexit piled up and Barack Obama delivered his cool blow. Patriotic feelings are all the Brexiteers appear to have. In place of economic reason, they resort to absurd vitriol. |
| But there’s a long way to go, and emotions continue to matter. Tillmans’ image of a lost horizon captures what I suspect is the hidden emotional truth for millions of people. We may not be out there ranting, but if Britain voted to leave we would wake up on 24 June with a terrible sense of loss and isolation, a sadness that would be hard to shake. | But there’s a long way to go, and emotions continue to matter. Tillmans’ image of a lost horizon captures what I suspect is the hidden emotional truth for millions of people. We may not be out there ranting, but if Britain voted to leave we would wake up on 24 June with a terrible sense of loss and isolation, a sadness that would be hard to shake. |
| Britain outside Europe would feel like a foreign land to its own people. Whose country would such an isolationist island be? Not mine – I’d be lost there. Incredibly, leave campaigner and justice minister Dominic Raab has conceded that Britons may need visas to visit Europe if they vote to go. What kind of backward step in history are these people contemplating? A visa to visit Europe? | Britain outside Europe would feel like a foreign land to its own people. Whose country would such an isolationist island be? Not mine – I’d be lost there. Incredibly, leave campaigner and justice minister Dominic Raab has conceded that Britons may need visas to visit Europe if they vote to go. What kind of backward step in history are these people contemplating? A visa to visit Europe? |
| Tillmans expresses the tragedy of such an outcome in a poster that adapts the words of the poet John Donne: “No man is an island. No country by itself.” In another, over an ethereal blue and orange photograph, he asks: “If people like Rupert Murdoch, Nigel Farage, George Galloway, Nick Griffin, and Marine Le Pen want Britain to leave the EU … Where does that put you?” | Tillmans expresses the tragedy of such an outcome in a poster that adapts the words of the poet John Donne: “No man is an island. No country by itself.” In another, over an ethereal blue and orange photograph, he asks: “If people like Rupert Murdoch, Nigel Farage, George Galloway, Nick Griffin, and Marine Le Pen want Britain to leave the EU … Where does that put you?” |
| I suspect Tillmans is not on Nigel Farage’s radar. But he can use his more selective fame to directly address younger voters who need to register and vote. And other artists should follow his lead if they can express themselves as naturally and sympathetically as he does in these posters. | I suspect Tillmans is not on Nigel Farage’s radar. But he can use his more selective fame to directly address younger voters who need to register and vote. And other artists should follow his lead if they can express themselves as naturally and sympathetically as he does in these posters. |
| The photograph he matches with his revision of Donne’s immortal lines is a view from the sky of a coastline battered by the waves. Instead of white cliffs with green grass behind them, as in some Brexit fantasy island, the land here is cut off from a wider world and looks like a desert. Isolate this island and it will die. | The photograph he matches with his revision of Donne’s immortal lines is a view from the sky of a coastline battered by the waves. Instead of white cliffs with green grass behind them, as in some Brexit fantasy island, the land here is cut off from a wider world and looks like a desert. Isolate this island and it will die. |