Blossom, Thomas Demand

The texts and images presented here are part of Blossom, a collaboration between the artist Thomas Demand and writer Ben Lerner. The images relate to a detail from a photograph of Katherine Russell, widow of Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev leaving her home in Boston, that first appeared in the New York Times on 4 May 2013.

Thomas Demand’s work lures the viewer into a reality that is not what it appears to be. Carefully contrived from paper, these imaginary worlds are sculpted, photographed and destroyed. The traces which remain are events in which the protagonist is removed, scenes that are both familiar and out of reach. Demand’s work has been shown extensively across the world and is included in most of the significant private and institutional collections. Recent books include The Dallies (MACK, 2012) and Model Studies (Ivory Press, 2011).

Ben Lerner is the author of three books of poetry: The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw and Mean Free Path, all published by Copper Canyon Press. He is the author of two novels, Leaving the Atocha Station, published by Coffee House Press, and 10:04, out this year from Faber / FSG. His recent writing on art and literature can be found in Art in America, Frieze, Harper’s, and The London Review of Books. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and has received Fulbright, Howard, and Guggenheim Fellowships, among other honors.