Helga de Alvear

Thomas Demand & Miriam Böhm

05 Nov 2015 - 16 Jan 2016

Exhibition view
THOMAS DEMAND & MIRIAM BÖHM
5 November 2015 - 16 January 2016

Galería Helga de Alvear is pleased to announce a joint exhibition of Thomas Demand and Miriam Böhm. Both artists present photographic works that hide a sculptural process in paper behind. Meanwhile Demand ́s images are narrative, relating his photos to a specific story, Böhm relies on textures, lines, and volumes of a more abstract work.

Thomas Demand ́s (Munich 1964) process consists of the production of 3D paper maquettes of his idea and understanding of a place. Once he has what he calls a “valid sculpture” in life size, he photographs it, often challenging angles and unseen interiors. Demand always destroys the paper installation leaving the large scale and full colour photographic work as the only trace of the whole process. His work is inspired by daily news and often relates to pre-existing press images, showing scenes of cultural or political relevance. He builds the compositions in his photographs through images from his subconscious that he gives form, stopping when it comes too close to reality.

To Miriam Böhm (Germany 1972), a photograph is not just an end result, but can also be an integral part of the work of as an object. Photography is not just about photography, but about how we look at photography. In its lack of associative power, Böhm ́s imaginery is almost anti-referential. She literally constructs a context and condition for images to be physically experienced.

Printing and reprinting is at the core of Böhm ́s process and the conceptual anchor of her aesthetic project. It becomes a counterpoint to the widespread rematerialization of our experience of images to screen spaces. In the context of digitization, an insistence on the print risks becoming a nostalgic exploration of the loss ushered in by the rapid cycling of technology and obsolescence. For Böhm, a rich material relationship with photography and the physicality of the print becomes a way to focus the viewer ́s attention on viewing itself.
 

Tags: Miriam Böhm, Thomas Demand