An article entitled “The cardboard cannabis lab: Thomas Demand’s beautifully deceptive realities” posted by U.K.-based The Guardian features the work of Thomas Demand who has drawn inspiration from Niagara College in a recent project.
Demand is an artist who creates intricate models of real-life scenes, which he then photographs. In “Nursery” he recreates NC’s Commercial Cannabis Production facility. The article notes, “Nursery is a recreation of a hydroponic laboratory situated on the science campus of Niagara College in Ontario, which offers what may be the world’s first degree in commercial cannabis production.” The recreation is described in the article as, “an ominous, pink-lit interior in which small plants sit in identical boxes neatly arranged on long tables, their growth controlled by a network of pipes, cables and overhanging lights.”
Demand is quoted in the article about the NC-inspired piece: “The fact that it is almost entirely automated shows that there is a complete lack of sentimentality about the project. I find that wonderful somehow.”
The article also mentions that “Nursery” is displayed along with a photo called “Pond,” which is a recreation of the garden that inspired Monet’s water lily work, and notes that by exhibiting the two photos together, Demand suggests “a different idea of the sublime.”
Read the full March 22 article here.
Demand’s work was also featured by Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster, on March 26. A photo of the NC-inspired recreation can be viewed on page two of the image gallery. View the coverage here.
