Thomas Demand Interview: A World of Models

We realize how the world looks through models, says German artist Thomas Demand in this interview. And we live with models all the time in science, media, even the weatherforecast is a model. Without models, we would go mad within seconds. Thomas Demand is known for his large scale photographs of threedimensional models, made from paper and cardboard. He constructs the models in life size, photographs them, and destroys them afterwards. The only thing left is an image of a past moment. Many of Demands models can be traced back to public events and images, such as his reconstruction of The Oval Office in the White House, a rendering of the Pont de lAlma tunnel in Paris (where Princess Dianas fatal accident occurred) and a recount center in Florida from the much debated US election in 2000. With his series Model Studies, for the first time Demand turned his camera towards models that are not his own. During a residency at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles in 2011, Demand was introd