Thomas Demand Wren, 2020
Framed pigment print
110 x 145 cm (43 1/4 x 57 1/8 in) (unframed)
135 x 172 cm (53 1/8 x 67 3/4 in) (framed)
135 x 172 cm (53 1/8 x 67 3/4 in) (framed)
Edition of 2
As of 2011, Thomas Demand has developed several series of Model Studies – works which focus on the concept of the model as the space between creative idea and its execution. In these Model Studies, Demand moves away from his usual practice, for example by no longer exclusively photographing his own self-built scale models, but rather those of other artists, architects and designers. Often, these projects involve never realized models, and as such the projects continue to embody a potential, a possibility.
Rather than being nostalgic musings, Demand's Model Studies document his chance encounters with the work of these artists. If in most of his photographs the camera is in a frontal yet remote position, in these studies the various scale models are shown from up close. This results in series of images which come across as abstract and highly tactile through the textures and materials depicted.
Wren belongs to the series of Model Studies that was first shown in Demand’s exhibition HOUSE OF CARD at Museum M Leuven in 2020. For this particular body of work, Demand took pictures of the paper patterns by Azzedine Alaïa (1940-2017), a French fashion designer of Tunisian descent, which were used to make original clothing designs. If Demand’s pictures are based on material objects, through the lens of his camera they become abstract – they show something, even though we do not recognize what they show. Rather than registering or documenting reality, the images mainly refer to themselves: they are ‘autofigurative’.
Alaïa was called an engineer or architect of fabric, and he was known for his endless search for perfection. At times he worked for five years on the pattern of a jacket – and after it was eventually shown on the catwalk, he again took it to his studio to work some more on it. His technical skill was equal to that of geniuses like Balenciaga and Madame Grès. He actually collected pieces of clothing they made, and sometimes he unstitched them to imitate their design, if not to modify it.
Alaïa passed away in 2017. His collection of paper patterns, which is stored in a depot outside of Paris, serves as a kind of library of models, which are still used by the staff of his Paris studio. The instructions,measurements, dotted lines and technical specifications on the paper patterns are silent witnesses to the master’s skill, and they also make it possible to carry on his label after his death. The occasionally well-thumbed patterns with all their folds and perforations, their curling edges and tears, are relics of an intense creative process, ready to be used all over again any moment. Demand shows them as ready-mades or objets-trouvés from the practice of a fellow-artist – as if frozen in their initial conception, their coming into being.
Rather than being nostalgic musings, Demand's Model Studies document his chance encounters with the work of these artists. If in most of his photographs the camera is in a frontal yet remote position, in these studies the various scale models are shown from up close. This results in series of images which come across as abstract and highly tactile through the textures and materials depicted.
Wren belongs to the series of Model Studies that was first shown in Demand’s exhibition HOUSE OF CARD at Museum M Leuven in 2020. For this particular body of work, Demand took pictures of the paper patterns by Azzedine Alaïa (1940-2017), a French fashion designer of Tunisian descent, which were used to make original clothing designs. If Demand’s pictures are based on material objects, through the lens of his camera they become abstract – they show something, even though we do not recognize what they show. Rather than registering or documenting reality, the images mainly refer to themselves: they are ‘autofigurative’.
Alaïa was called an engineer or architect of fabric, and he was known for his endless search for perfection. At times he worked for five years on the pattern of a jacket – and after it was eventually shown on the catwalk, he again took it to his studio to work some more on it. His technical skill was equal to that of geniuses like Balenciaga and Madame Grès. He actually collected pieces of clothing they made, and sometimes he unstitched them to imitate their design, if not to modify it.
Alaïa passed away in 2017. His collection of paper patterns, which is stored in a depot outside of Paris, serves as a kind of library of models, which are still used by the staff of his Paris studio. The instructions,measurements, dotted lines and technical specifications on the paper patterns are silent witnesses to the master’s skill, and they also make it possible to carry on his label after his death. The occasionally well-thumbed patterns with all their folds and perforations, their curling edges and tears, are relics of an intense creative process, ready to be used all over again any moment. Demand shows them as ready-mades or objets-trouvés from the practice of a fellow-artist – as if frozen in their initial conception, their coming into being.
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