In the spirit of Thomas Demand, Heather Rasmussen reconstructs found photographs using colored construction paper. With her series DestructConstruct, Rasmussen turns to appropriated imagery of shipping container accidents for her inspiration. In the statement for the work, more of which can be seen over at Women In Photography, she explains:
"The series DestructConstruct is based on found photographs of shipping container accidents downloaded from the Internet. Each found image is used as a model for a sculpture that is constructed for the production of the photograph. Individual shipping containers are folded by hand out templates of colored cardstock, and placed according to the found image. The sculpture then exists as a photographic work, which directly relates to the original photograph, including the ship name, place, and date the accident happened. I abstract the scenes of the catastrophes, removing the original context and placing the damaged containers, rendered simply out of colored paper, onto a seamless white background. This process transforms the containers into pristine patterns of color and shape, thereby confusing scale and altering the perception of the shipping container as an object. The paper is now seen as fragile, crushed or torn due to an unknown circumstance."
"Untitled. (M/V MSC Napoli, English Channel, January 2007). 2009"
© Heather Rasmussen
"Untitled. (P&O Nedlloyd Barcelona, Pacific Ocean, June 2005). 2009"
© Heather Rasmussen
"Untitled. (M/V Hanjin Pennsylvania, Indian Ocean, November 11, 2002). 2009"
© Heather Rasmussen
"Untitled. (M/V Saga Spray, Vancouver, Canada, February 2006). 2009"
© Heather Rasmussen
"Untitled. (M/V Ital Florida, Italy, July 2007). 2008"
© Heather Rasmussen
