“Models provide us with a focus on our world, as its complexity would place an inconceivable load on our apprehension without such filter.” –Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020
C-print/Diasec
200 × 399 cm
78 3/4 × 157 inches
“Models provide us with a focus on our world, as its complexity would place an inconceivable load on our apprehension without such filter.” –Thomas Demand
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020
C-print/Diasec
200 × 399 cm
78 3/4 × 157 inches
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020
C-print/Diasec
200 × 399 cm
78 3/4 × 157 inches
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020
C-print/Diasec
200 × 399 cm
78 3/4 × 157 inches
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020
C-print/Diasec
200 × 399 cm
78 3/4 × 157 inches
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020
C-print/Diasec
200 × 399 cm
78 3/4 × 157 inches
Thomas Demand
Pond, 2020
C-print/Diasec
200 × 399 cm
78 3/4 × 157 inches
Thomas Demand’s Pond (2020) presents a view of nature that is clichéd in its tranquility. Water lilies have traditionally symbolized purity and rebirth, reproducing in water rather than in soil. Sprouts of reeds appear from between the mysterious lipped pads as clouds above place some of them in shadow. Borrowing a trope from art history, and in a composition that has no shore, this play of light across the scene emphasizes its dreamlike serenity.
The artificiality of such a scene– an artificially made image showing an artificial production– is typical of Demand’s tautological practice in its ability to question photographic truth in a self-referential manner. Demand creates life-size cardboard models with meticulous detail before photographing and then destroying them. Exemplifying this allusion to its medium is Copyshop (1999), referring to how things are made and to its own artifice.
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999
Chromogenic print on photographic paper and Diasec
183.5 × 300 cm
72 1/4 × 118 inches
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999
Chromogenic print on photographic paper and Diasec
183.5 × 300 cm
72 1/4 × 118 inches
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999
Chromogenic print on photographic paper and Diasec
183.5 × 300 cm
72 1/4 × 118 inches
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Copyshop, 1999 (detail)
The artificiality of such a scene– an artificially made image showing an artificial production– is typical of Demand’s tautological practice in its ability to question photographic truth in a self-referential manner. Demand creates life-size cardboard models with meticulous detail before photographing and then destroying them. Exemplifying this allusion to its medium is Copyshop (1999), referring to how things are made and to its own artifice.
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020
C-print/Diasec
190 × 260 cm
74 7/8 × 102 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (scale image)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020
C-print/Diasec
190 × 260 cm
74 7/8 × 102 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020
C-print/Diasec
190 × 260 cm
74 7/8 × 102 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (scale image)
Thomas Demand
Nursery, 2020 (scale image)
The calming green of Pond, a non-technological landscape of the past, is in opposition to the violent pink landscape of the future in Nursery (2020).
Suspended pink lights heavily illuminate long tables of horticultural specimens. Complex networks of pipes and cabling run through them, interspersed with labels, clipboards and watering cans. Immediately recalling a recently uncovered crime scene for the hydroponic growth of cannabis, this lab is in fact legally compliant and a scene from the future of farming. Based in Ontario, this is where students study for degrees in commercial cannabis production. The emerging legal cannabis industry has taken advantage of changes in government legislation and new technology to turn this previously nefarious activity into a multi-billion dollar business.
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003
Chromogenic print and Diasec
192 × 495 cm
75 1/2 × 195 inches
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Nature has been replaced with new forces that are both more resourceful and economical, and presented here as wholly artificial, reminding us that our idea of nature as an idyll is obsolescent and highly fabricated.
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003
Chromogenic print and Diasec
192 × 495 cm
75 1/2 × 195 inches
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003
Chromogenic print and Diasec
192 × 495 cm
75 1/2 × 195 inches
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Clearing, 2003 (detail)
Nature has been replaced with new forces that are both more resourceful and economical, and presented here as wholly artificial, reminding us that our idea of nature as an idyll is obsolescent and highly fabricated.
As in Pond, previous representations of nature in Demand’s work such as Clearing (2003) and more recently Bloom (2014) demonstrate how our notion of nature is anachronistic and can border on the kitsch. Archetypes and ideals are exposed as not only false but potentially misleading.
The reality of farming and food supply today is the glowing pink lab, spearheaded by firms that have developed highly efficient vertical farms and other technological solutions for agriculture.
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014
C-Print/Diasec
200 × 398 cm
78 3/4 × 156 3/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014
C-Print/Diasec
200 × 398 cm
78 3/4 × 156 3/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014
C-Print/Diasec
200 × 398 cm
78 3/4 × 156 3/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Bloom, 2014 (detail)
As in Pond, previous representations of nature in Demand’s work such as Clearing (2003) and more recently Bloom (2014) demonstrate how our notion of nature is anachronistic and can border on the kitsch. Archetypes and ideals are exposed as not only false but potentially misleading.
The reality of farming and food supply today is the glowing pink lab, spearheaded by firms that have developed highly efficient vertical farms and other technological solutions for agriculture.
All installation views by Ben Westoby
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020
C-print/Diasec
180 × 144 cm
70 7/8 × 56 3/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Tissue, 2008
C-print/Diasec
80 × 60 cm
During our current crisis, the result of excess and poor management of the relationship between humans and nature, we are asked to recalibrate and reconsider how we treat the natural world and try to conquer it.
Canopy (2020) speaks of this moment, showing a solitary balcony with its canopy fully extended, its inhabitants shielding not only from the harshness of the sun’s rays but the trouble in nature that has unfolded around them. The ordered seriality of the balconies is in contrast to both the blind’s decorative yellow edge and the disorder beyond, as the world fails to contain a virulent disease. The lone crumpled paper towel of Tissue (2008) becomes newly pertinent too, alluding both to the state-ordered messages to wash your hands and the carelessness with which we discard what we no longer need.
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020
C-print/Diasec
180 × 144 cm
70 7/8 × 56 3/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020
C-print/Diasec
180 × 144 cm
70 7/8 × 56 3/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Canopy, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Tissue, 2008
C-print/Diasec
80 × 60 cm
Thomas Demand
Tissue, 2008
C-print/Diasec
80 × 60 cm
During our current crisis, the result of excess and poor management of the relationship between humans and nature, we are asked to recalibrate and reconsider how we treat the natural world and try to conquer it.
Canopy (2020) speaks of this moment, showing a solitary balcony with its canopy fully extended, its inhabitants shielding not only from the harshness of the sun’s rays but the trouble in nature that has unfolded around them. The ordered seriality of the balconies is in contrast to both the blind’s decorative yellow edge and the disorder beyond, as the world fails to contain a virulent disease. The lone crumpled paper towel of Tissue (2008) becomes newly pertinent too, alluding both to the state-ordered messages to wash your hands and the carelessness with which we discard what we no longer need.
The second part of the exhibition presents new works from the Model Studies series, a departure in Demand’s own practice in its portrayal of models not of his own making, but to date those of architects John Lautner, SANAA and Hans Hollein.
Thomas Demand
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, 2021
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Starling, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Starling, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
starling, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
starling, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, 2021
Thomas Demand
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, 2021
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Kinglet, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Towhee, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Starling, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Starling, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Starling, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Starling, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
starling, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
starling, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
starling, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
starling, 2020 (detail)
In this latest series Demand focuses his attention on the atelier of the late fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa, the classically trained couturier known for his architectural approach to constructing exquisite garments. For Demand, a model or in this case the pattern, is a sculptural object used to convey a series of ideas, a means of making sense of information, itself an art form.
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Skylark, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 × 145 cm
43 1/4 × 57 inches
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Robin, 2020 (detail)
“I have always been interested in working models–more so than in the neatly finished models that the architect shows to the client, because there the design is already more or less fixed and the focus is on the formal elements. I like more the rough, working instrument that’s been handled.… The models I’ve made myself have no biography, no life story, but those working models do. They embody a moment in time, they show how you can think with your hands. That is what interests me.” –Thomas Demand
Thomas Demand
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, 2021
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, 2021
Thomas Demand
Installation view, Sprüth Magers, London, 2021
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Dunnock, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020
Framed pigment print
145 × 110 cm
57 × 43 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Sparrow, 2020 (detail)
"The patterns are flat, instructive paper models for making three-dimensional garments, captured in the two-dimensional format of the photograph. They are cut-outs in the shape of the garments, and in that way already in the process of becoming three-dimensional." Karen van Godtsenhoven (1).
Demand’s studies within the atelier expose its complex working practices whilst the abstraction of his photographic compositions do not reveal full garments, rather the fragments of a greater whole. Like the earlier architecture-based Model Studies, by offering just sections the viewer is left to complete the final product themselves, or delight in the fullness of these fractions.
Thomas Demand
Partridge, 2020
Framed pigment print
65 × 97.5 cm
25 5/8 × 38 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Partridge, 2020
Framed pigment print
65 × 97.5 cm
25 5/8 × 38 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Partridge (detail)
Thomas Demand
Partridge (detail)
Thomas Demand
Partridge, 2020
Framed pigment print
65 × 97.5 cm
25 5/8 × 38 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Partridge, 2020
Framed pigment print
65 × 97.5 cm
25 5/8 × 38 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Partridge, 2020
Framed pigment print
65 × 97.5 cm
25 5/8 × 38 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Partridge, 2020
Framed pigment print
65 × 97.5 cm
25 5/8 × 38 3/8 inches
Thomas Demand
Partridge (detail)
Thomas Demand
Partridge (detail)
Thomas Demand
Partridge (detail)
Thomas Demand
Partridge (detail)
"The patterns are flat, instructive paper models for making three-dimensional garments, captured in the two-dimensional format of the photograph. They are cut-outs in the shape of the garments, and in that way already in the process of becoming three-dimensional." Karen van Godtsenhoven (1).
Demand’s studies within the atelier expose its complex working practices whilst the abstraction of his photographic compositions do not reveal full garments, rather the fragments of a greater whole. Like the earlier architecture-based Model Studies, by offering just sections the viewer is left to complete the final product themselves, or delight in the fullness of these fractions.
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Annotations, instructions and traces of tape and glue are visual markers of the labor that has worked to create them, bearing witness to their life of use. Shimmering tracing paper patterns testify to the practice of copying and reworking existing patterns.
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Film stills courtesy of Joe McKenna
Annotations, instructions and traces of tape and glue are visual markers of the labor that has worked to create them, bearing witness to their life of use. Shimmering tracing paper patterns testify to the practice of copying and reworking existing patterns.
The rigidity of the multi-colored thick card patterns is in contrast to the seemingly haphazard means of presentation and operations of the atelier. Demand sees a similarity with the fragmented patterns to Matisse’s paper cut-outs, abandoned leftovers on the studio floor that could become part of a work, presented in Atelier (2014).
Unlike the architectural models of his earlier Model Studies, which may be used to trigger a seemingly endless chain of thought, Alaïa’s patterns are designed for use and reuse as a manual for the repetition of an idea in fabric. Whether used in the process of architects or fashion designers, the working model has an inbuilt history and biography. Demand continues to investigate how our interpretation of new and existing models preclude the structures we inhabit, and in his pursuit of technical exactitude and sculptural form, he studies the model as a way of rebuilding an impression of the world.
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014
C-Print / Diasec
240 × 341 cm
94 1/2 × 134 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014
C-Print / Diasec
240 × 341 cm
94 1/2 × 134 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014
C-Print / Diasec
240 × 341 cm
94 1/2 × 134 1/4 inches
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014 (detail)
Thomas Demand
Atelier, 2014 (detail)
The rigidity of the multi-colored thick card patterns is in contrast to the seemingly haphazard means of presentation and operations of the atelier. Demand sees a similarity with the fragmented patterns to Matisse’s paper cut-outs, abandoned leftovers on the studio floor that could become part of a work, presented in Atelier (2014).
Unlike the architectural models of his earlier Model Studies, which may be used to trigger a seemingly endless chain of thought, Alaïa’s patterns are designed for use and reuse as a manual for the repetition of an idea in fabric. Whether used in the process of architects or fashion designers, the working model has an inbuilt history and biography. Demand continues to investigate how our interpretation of new and existing models preclude the structures we inhabit, and in his pursuit of technical exactitude and sculptural form, he studies the model as a way of rebuilding an impression of the world.
Thomas Demand talks about the Model Studies and his exhibition Thomas Demand HOUSE OF CARD with contributions by Arno Brandlhuber, Martin Boyce, Caruso St John and Rirkrit Tiranavija, M Leuven, Belgium curated by Valerie Verhack (October 9, 2020–April 18, 2021)
Sources: 1. Karen Van Godtsenhoven, “A Colourful Toolshed: Azzedine Alaïa’s Models as Seen By Thomas Demand”, Thomas Demand: House of Card, edited by Valerie Verhack, exh. cat. M Leuven, Leuven, 2020, p. 276
Thomas Demand
February 3–May 15, 2021
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