Thomas Demand

Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, 2001. paperback. fine. Published on the occasion of the 2001 exhibition Thomas Demand, curated by Dean Sobel, at the Aspen Art Museum (also traveled to De Apel Foundation, Amsterdam, ArtPace, San Antonio, Texas and SITE Sante Fe, Sante Fe, New Mexico). From the publisher: "German photographer Thomas Demand (b. 1964) is one of the most highly acclaimed artists of his generation. Like many of his contemporaries, his work investigates the nature and process of photography while exploring the role of the media in our culture. Demand begins his process with images of highly charged locations, usually interiors. He obtains these images from a variety of sources, including newspapers, the Internet, and even his own memory. Demand then builds life-size paper and cardboard models of these places, which in turn become the "subjects" of his large-scale photographs. While the artificiality of these images may not be immediately apparent, upon detailed examination, one can see that details are missing (like light switches), and everything has a hint of peculiarity. In describing his work, Demand has said, "The surroundings that I portray are, for me, something untouched - a utopic construction. No traces of use are visible on their surfaces, and time seems to have come to a stop."