The
son of a painter, Thomas Demand spent his childhood in Bavaria,
in Germany, and attended schools in Dusseldorf, Munich,
Paris, London, and Amsterdam. He lives in Berlin, Germany,
and maintains an apartment in London.
- Where
might this be? Does this seem like a familiar or unfamiliar
setting to you?
- Can
you recognize and name any of the objects you see here?
Why or why not?
Like
other works of his, Demand made this room out of colored
paper and cardboard and photographed it. These paper models
of rooms, or sets, are life-size and are often based on
rooms of historical significance.
- How
does this information affect the way you see this artwork?
Demand
began his career as a sculptor. He used materials such as
balloons, paper, and cardboard in his work. He later realized
that he did not want to carry his sculptures and supplies
around every time he moved. In order to remember the sculptures
he had to leave behind when he moved, Demand photographed
his work.
Demand's
method of photographing his sculptures greatly influenced
his later work, such as the photograph you see here. He
was interested in only having a photograph and not the actual
object to remember. Demand started to life-size models of
rooms, which he built just to photograph; he would then
destroy the model.
When
asked if he destroyed his models immediately after he photographed
them, Demand said, "They fall apart anyway. They have
one peak of perfectness, of immaculate beauty, sometimes
just for a day or so. If you don't catch the shot on that
day, it's gone. I prefer to get rid of it after that. It
feels like some kind of liberation, considering that I spend
most of my time with it for some month."1
- What
is your response to Demand's idea of something having
only a moment of perfection?
- What
do you think about the fact that these rooms are built
just to be photographed, then are destroyed?
- In
your opinion, are Demand’s photographs of his sculptures
more important than the sculptures themselves or are the
sculptures more important than the photographs? Why?
- Thomas
Demand, "Ask the Artist: Thomas Demand ," in CI:99/00,
Carnegie International.Org, March 3,1999.
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