Thomas Demand Schilf, 2025
UV print on copper
85 x 64 cm
Thomas Demand's Schilf uses a new technique of UV print on a copper plate. The motif does not seem to have any apparent narrative content: tufts of reeds rising from the water are a familiar sight. Yet, the image can be read as water or sky, as plants or their reflection. In a self-referential gesture, then, the work alludes to Demand’s general practice of creating works at the threshold of two-dimensional image and three-dimensional object, but also to his monumental Pond, 2020, a work in reference to Claude Monet’s gardens of waterlilies at Giverny.
There is a shift in Demand's practice, turning away from C-prints, and experimenting with new printing methods such as printing onto copper. As he explains in his 2025 artforum portfolio, "In the sixteenth century, artists turned to painting on copper because wood would warp and canvases on stretchers weren’t widely used yet. Copperplate engraving was one of the first techniques used to mechanically reproduce images. The first photographs were also printed on copper. As an original element (no. 29, Cu), it is a rather auratic material, in my eyes."
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
– The face of the copper plate is primed with a protective layer to prevent oxidization
– Several layers of thin gesso base (a mix of chalk, pigment and gypsum) are applied on top as a primer. Each of these layers are evened out manually to create a smooth surface
– The UV-print is then made on top of the final gesso layer, and sealed with a protective varnish
– The sides and back of the plate are not varnished and can oxidize. The back of the plate is mounted on a smaller copper frame
There is a shift in Demand's practice, turning away from C-prints, and experimenting with new printing methods such as printing onto copper. As he explains in his 2025 artforum portfolio, "In the sixteenth century, artists turned to painting on copper because wood would warp and canvases on stretchers weren’t widely used yet. Copperplate engraving was one of the first techniques used to mechanically reproduce images. The first photographs were also printed on copper. As an original element (no. 29, Cu), it is a rather auratic material, in my eyes."
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
– The face of the copper plate is primed with a protective layer to prevent oxidization
– Several layers of thin gesso base (a mix of chalk, pigment and gypsum) are applied on top as a primer. Each of these layers are evened out manually to create a smooth surface
– The UV-print is then made on top of the final gesso layer, and sealed with a protective varnish
– The sides and back of the plate are not varnished and can oxidize. The back of the plate is mounted on a smaller copper frame