Closedness

The model is essentially a projection of a space: without electricity, sterilized, drawn to perfection and uninhabited. It is simplified and enclosed, without a physical connection to reality. These qualities echo certain themes in Demand’s work that explore closedness, separation, limitation, and insularity.

8.1 Princess, 2021

The cruise ship Diamond Princess set out on its latest voyage on January 20 and returned to Yokohama on February 3, 2020. One of its passengers, a Chinese citizen, was diagnosed with Covid. He had left the ship on January 25 in Hong Kong. In the days that followed, 542 of the 3,600 passengers on board the ship became infected. Anchored off Yokohama, the Diamond Princess became a Covid hospital on water. Several countries engaged in serious diplomatic operations to liberate and hospitalize their citizens. The lack of information about the virus and the critical state of several passengers turned the luxury cruise ship into a disturbing symbol of isolation and helplessness in the face of the pandemic.

8.2 Fence, 2004

A fragment of a wire mesh fence dramatically picked out by a bright beam of light in the darkness becomes a pure sign of separation, a border. What is behind it remains unclear—we only see more darkness, with bright shadows of the fence standing out. Demand found this photograph in an arrest case file at a Brooklyn police station.

8.3 Bus Stop, 2009

The hut in this photograph is in fact a bus stop. Similar structures were veritable social hubs for young people not only in Germany but also in the Soviet Union outside the capital cities. Demand has reconstructed the only bus stop in a hamlet called Loitsche, near Magdeburg in East Germany. It was the sole connection to the world for the two brothers Tom and Bill Kaulitz, who dreamt of a global career as musicians. It is known to be the place where the teenage pop-rock band Tokio Hotel was founded.