Page 54 - Annual Review 2008

54 / RESOuRCES
Thomas Demand explores the relationship between
photography and reality. His works usually take their
point of departure from a found image. Demand
then makes a large-scale model that meticulously
reconstructs the image using paper and cardboard.
Once complete, he produces a single photograph of the
model so carefully composed that it appears to depict
the actual, real-world scenario. There is, however,
something unsettling and surreal about the final image
that entices us to study its details and, as we do so, its
artifice begins to unravel.
Thomas Demand / Landing 2006 / Chromogenic colour print on paper with Diasec, ed. 1/6 /
Purchased 2008. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund /
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / Image courtesy: The artist and Monika Sprüth Philomeme
Magers, London. © Thomas Demand 2006/VG Bild-Kunst. Licensed by Viscopy, Sydney, 2008
THOmAS
DEMAND
Landing 2006
Landing has an objective and matter-of-fact quality that
we might associate with crime-scene photography. It is
based on a conservator’s photograph of an unfortunate
but undeniably slapstick incident at the Fitzwilliam
Museum in Cambridge, England, in which a man
tripped over his shoelaces, fell down a staircase, and
knocked over three highly valuable Qing Dynasty vases.
'For GoMA, it's now about buying "art of your time".'Tony Ellwood, Director, Queensland Art Gallery, The Australian, 11 September 2008