Thomas Demand, Bullion

c-print

Image: 27.7 × 27.7 cm | 10 7/8 × 10 7/8 in
Sheet: 30 × 30 cm | 11 3/4 × 11 3/4 in

verso on a label signed, dated, titled and "Edition 27/100" numbered

Edition of 100 + 15 a.p. Editor: Edition EN/OF, Kleve

I would like to be informed about new works by Thomas Demand.

Would you like to sell a similar work? Contact us!

Provenance

Private Collection Rhineland

Exhibitions
  • Galerie Ludorff, "KUNST MACHT GLÜCKLICH", Düsseldorf 2023
Literature
  • Galerie Ludorff, "KUNST MACHT GLÜCKLICH", Düsseldorf 2023, Nr. 55
  • Christy Lange (Hg.), "Thomas Demand. The Complete Papers", London 2018, S. 184
  • Hubertus Gassner/Martina Sitt (Hg.), "Spiegel geheimer Wünsche: Stillleben aus fünf Jahrhunderten", Ausst.-Kat. Hamburger Kunsthalle, München 2008, S. 35, Abb. S. 37

Thomas Demand moulds his world of motifs from small-scale paper and cardboard models, which he stages in elaborate montages to create seemingly real worlds, only to destroy them afterwards. What remains are photographs that bear witness to the artist's sculptural constructions. Demand is not interested in the ideal of mimesis, of skilful imitation. Rather, he reconstructs realities, such as places, things or concrete, historical events, in order to expose our increasingly media-mediated perception and its effects on our concept of reality.

"Bullion" (2003) shows a stack of gold bars, which - in keeping with Thomas Demand's modus operandi - is not made of pure gold, but of meticulously folded gold paper, although this cannot be seen with the naked eye. The paper illusion, which stylises itself into something valuable in the guise of gold, can also be understood as an implicit commentary on our understanding of value, which - in the form of the gold ingot - constantly shifts between meaning and form in our perception and is thus heightened to absurdity.

About Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand's work oscilates between sculpture and photography, in which he reconstructs crime scene and press photographs from paper or cardboard in order to subsequently capture them photographically.

More Artworks from Galerie Ludorff, "KUNST MACHT GLÜCKLICH", Düsseldorf 2023
Artwork Publications
Artwork Exhibitions