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From Saddam Hussein’s hiding place to the Stasi’s ransacked HQ, the German artist creates meticulous models of scenes – then photographs them. Now he’s moving on to the world of nature
Last year, Thomas Demand made two large-scale photographs, Pond and Nursery, that at first seem to suggest two conflicting ideas of nature: the sublime and the scientific. The former, a nod to Monet, shows a constellation of yellow, circular water lilies on an expanse of blue water. The second is an ominous, pink-lit interior in which small plants sit in identical boxes neatly arranged on long tables, their growth controlled by a network of pipes, cables and overhanging lights.
As with most photographs by Demand, though, nothing is quite what it seems. His signature process begins with the meticulous construction, in paper and card, of life-size models of actual locations. When completed, these are artfully photographed before being destroyed. Having made his name by creating oddly blank environments that nevertheless resonate with meaning, seeming to have a past as well as a present, he has now turned his attention to what he calls “constructed nature”. Continue reading...