One of Thomas Mailaender’s attributes is his ingenuity and ability to conceive curious and creative exhibitions using everyday materials, and his curated shows teem with humour and originality. Known for his use of a wide range of techniques including ceramic, photography, collage and installation, he employs diverse materials, often re-appropriating images from the internet or his own huge archive.
Living and working between Paris and Marseille, along with Eric Kessels, Thomas has curated Photo Pleasure Palace, an exhibition in conjunction with this Unseen Photography fair in Amsterdam. Both artists are compulsive collectors of photographs and keen observers of sociological patters. Additionally, they both take the absurd and ridiculous very very seriously.
EatlerKFC (Fries)Illustrated PeopleIllustrated People
Illustrated People is the manifestation in book form of a performance by Thomas Mailaender, in which he applied original negatives selected from the Archive of Modern Conflict’s collection to the skin of models and projected a powerful UV lamp over them, revealing a fleeting image on the skin’s surface. The work, originated from a reflection on the extent to which some pictures or memories are internalised in ourselves, shows the skin of the protagonist to become the photosensitive material allowing the images to appear. The ironic reflection on the ontological statute of photography is expressed through a painful act, in which the artist’s role is also the torturer, recalling the violence of the conflicts the material referred to.
.Illustrated People
Iconoclasts group show at Saatchi GalleryFemme FontaineComing SoupTemporary phototatooed at the #photopleasurepalaceMonnai de singe
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