The Work of Thomas Demand

Large photographs of apparently still interior and exterior spaces. When one looks more closely, one sees their hyper-real, idealised appearance is due to their being made of card and paper. So... photograph (1st level of removal from reality) of a model (2nd level of removal from reality)

So far the works could be about appearances and our perceptions. but the crucial extra element in Demand's work is the 'content' of these model/ photographs, namely, what these models are of. They are of various major and minor historically/ culturally/ aesthetically interesting places which haunt us by their very place in history and by their lack of people, their stillness.

By carefully selecting the topics of his works Demand makes the stillness of the scenes even more still, and they begin to acquire an out-of-timeness quality.