{"id":1279,"date":"2006-07-23T17:08:20","date_gmt":"2006-07-23T15:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/23\/thomas-we-demand-something-new\/"},"modified":"2007-10-19T13:45:14","modified_gmt":"2007-10-19T11:45:14","slug":"thomas-we-demand-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2006\/07\/23\/thomas-we-demand-something-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas! We Demand something new."},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

With his own brand of printed wallpaper (the pattern extracted from one of his photographs), Thomas Demand darkened the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens in London this summer. Each room a busy dark hue of green interfering with your vision in the same way that a chain link fence does: making us struggle to see the actual artwork. His intention was supposedly to make us aware of the domestic scale of the Gallery.His show consisted of large scale, slickly produced Plexiglas laminated photographs of “Life size sculptures painstakingly made by him” (Shame!) .Using rudimentary materials like paper and cardboard, he constructs banal scenes like a window surrounded by ivy, A kitchen, a photocopy shop, you get the drift right?<\/p>\n

He has been working in this way since he left Goldsmiths in the early 90’s and has yet to find something new, rather choosing to attempt to refine the way of working and his idea.
\nThe scenes are of course devoid of human presence and are crafted as accurately as possible. An image of a dead plant looks life like from a distance, but is revealed to be fake and constructed upon closer inspection. This show, and his work is really just a refined version of a concept that was better and more impressively produced ( and allowed to run its course) by Fischli and Weiss. The pair produced woodcarvings and Styrofoam sculptures of similar scenes and human scenarios, having since moved onto other methods of production and so, other ideas.
\nDemand has just reduced the same concept first to cardboard, and then to a photograph. Beyond the initial surprise of realising that what your looking at is constructed and not real, there is not much else to hold your attention, when it is really just an idea we have seen before, reduced to a large reflective photographic surface. Maybe it is more designed for the contemporary kind of travelling show, along with the need to edition, sell and adapt to the commercial museum and exhibition culture and the public’s constant need for exhibits.<\/p>\n

How I wish for something new. The Serpentine Gallery<\/a> is not one to give much away on their website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With his own brand of printed wallpaper (the pattern extracted from one of his photographs), Thomas Demand darkened the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens in London this summer. Each room a busy dark hue of green interfering with your vision in the same way that a chain link fence does: making us struggle to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,3,25,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-art-and-tech","category-reviews","category-sean-slemon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9blZT-kD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1609,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/03\/in-two-minds-marcus-neustetter-at-art-on-paper-gallery-johannesburg\/","url_meta":{"origin":1279,"position":0},"title":"in two minds: marcus neustetter at art on paper gallery, johannesburg","author":"nathaniel","date":"03 April 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Marcus is one of my favorite people and favorite contemporary artist-thinkers in South Africa. This his his first solo exhibition there (as far as I know). GO! in two minds Marcus Neustetter Please join us for the opening on Saturday 5 April 2008 at 14:00 The exhibition is accompanied by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1708,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/26\/small-worlds-anthea-buys-reviews-christo-doherty\/","url_meta":{"origin":1279,"position":1},"title":"small worlds: anthea buys reviews christo doherty","author":"nathaniel","date":"26 November 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"... Small Worlds is an exhibition of photographs and a video installation that track constructions of a fantasy South Africa through representations of the landscape by railway modellers. The thesis of the exhibition is two-fold, and very neatly reasoned. First, Doherty, who is Head of Digital Art at the Wits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1616,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/15\/marcus-neustetter-walkabout-art-on-paper-gallery-johannebusrg\/","url_meta":{"origin":1279,"position":2},"title":"Marcus Neustetter walkabout @ Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg","author":"nathaniel","date":"15 April 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"in two minds, Marcus Neustetter a chat with the artist on Thursday 17 April 2008 at 18:00 - 20:00 Art on Paper Gallery, 44 Stanley Avenue Braamfontein Werf (Milpark), Johannesburg South Africa Marcus Neustetter: in two minds, site-specific installation, 2008 Although Marcus Neustetter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest exhibition at Art on Paper Gallery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":854,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2005\/10\/21\/impact-kontakt\/","url_meta":{"origin":1279,"position":3},"title":"impact \/ kontakt","author":"nathaniel","date":"21 October 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas Kilpper's don't look back at the impact festival biennale a few weeks ago, Berlin \/ Poznan Local hero, Richard Kilpert (note similarity in name to Thomas Kilpper, artist shown), gave a talk about his great experiences at the Impact Printmaking festival\/conference a few weeks ago. The conference, whose title\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1577,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/18\/ralph-borland-at-wits-johannesburg\/","url_meta":{"origin":1279,"position":4},"title":"Ralph Borland at Wits (Johannesburg)","author":"nathaniel","date":"18 January 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If in Joburg, go see a great speaker and artist (and my classmate from ITP, peer in South Africa, and colleague in Dublin), Ralph Borland, next Friday. Ralph Borland Photographs by Pieter Hugo Suited for Subversion, 2002 Nylon-reinforced PVC, denim, padding, speaker, pulse-reader, circuitry Edition of 3 We are very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "art"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1871,"url":"https:\/\/nathanielstern.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/19\/night-work-the-armoury-gallery\/","url_meta":{"origin":1279,"position":5},"title":"Night Work @ The Armoury Gallery","author":"nathaniel","date":"19 March 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Night Work @ The Armoury Gallery The Armoury presents Night Work, featuring the work of six of Milwaukee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most established contemporary artists. 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