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Tacita Dean - Geography Biography (Mime Marceau)

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Tacita Dean

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La puerta del Diablo, 2021

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About The Work

This edition is created from one image of 130 postcards from the artist's found postcard collection, which she has gathered at flea markets over many decades. The images have been re-photographed and photochemically hand-printed at various scales and on a variety of papers. Inspired by her shared interests with Hepworth, Dean selected images that depicted a representation of, or potential for, sculptural form, creating an intuitive journey through objects and formations found in the natural world, to others made by artists across time.

Tacita Dean was introduced to the work of Barbara Hepworth and the St Ives School of artists while studying at Falmouth School of Art. She found a particular affinity with Hepworth’s interest in Cornish landscapes, the natural rock formations, the coastal paths, and the ancient standing stones. Like Hepworth, Dean is also drawn to the notion of ‘truth to materials’, observing: ‘The medium itself will give you something entirely unexpected, and something far better than you intended.’ By using analog materials and techniques, Dean is guided by the specific qualities of the mediums she works with, embracing the unpredictability of the making process.

Courtesy of The Hepworth Wakefield

About Tacita Dean

Tacita Dean, one of the so-called YBAs (Young British Artists), who rose to prominence in the UK during the late 1980s and ’90s, is a filmmaker, photographer, and painter. Her artistic practice has focused a great deal on dance and performance, including several collaborations with the Modernist choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham. In her final project with Cunningham in 2009, Craneway Event, Dean documented preparations for a 2008 dance project in an empty manufacturing plant overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Dean’s attention to changing bodies, light, and buildings are typical of her work, which often makes studies of material development or disintegration over time.

The sea is a recurring motif in Dean’s work, and the themes that have come to define her filmic oeuvre include subtle lighting, long, static camera takes, minimal narrative, and a sense of meditation, contemplation, and stillness, often accompanied by ambient sound.

Dean was the 1998 recipient of the prestigious Turner Prize, the 2006 Hugo Boss Prize winner, and she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Dean’s work has been shown across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Select solo exhibitions include shows at the Fabric Workshop and Museum of Philadelphia, the New Museum in New York, Tate Modern, Paris’s Centre Pompidou, and the Istanbul International Contemporary Dance and Performance Festival.