Michael Dean, NOW NOW NOW NOW (Working Title), 2015. Photo © Max McClure, Courtesy of Arnolfini.
Synopsis
NOW NOW NOW NOW (Working Title), 2015, is a new temporary artwork commissioned for the Harris and Co building near Arnolfini on Narrow Quay. The artwork was developed as part of a public art condition for the development in the form a sculptural hoarding.
Dean has interrupted wooden hoarding as a sculptural element, a large structure which is angled typographically to illegibly spell out the words “now…now…now…now”. The surface is fly-posted in a moth-like moraine of hand cut collaged mountain faces. This cryptic geometric landscape stretches along Farrs Lane and Narrow Quay, suggesting a monumental abstract geography at the intersection between the public space of the harbourside and the evolving building behind. Michael Dean (born 1977 in Newcastle upon Tyne) lives and works in London. Recent
Michael Dean works with sculpture, photography, performance and drawing. Made from cast concrete or other industrial materials, his sculptures seek a direct physical relationship with the human body. Their rough but delicate surfaces have the appearance of fossils or archaeological remains, and emphasise a tactile as much as visual experience.
Dean is interested in using language in its different incarnations to explore the relationship between ideas and form. Language, understood as something we intimately share and use to communicate, perceive and shape the world around us, occupies an important position in his practice. Dean’s sculptures evolve from his extensive writing and give physical form to words in the artist’s own three-dimensional ‘fonts’, visible for example in triangular lines on the sculptures, or the forms of the works themselves.
Michael Dean (born 1977 in Newcastle upon Tyne) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Jumping Bones, Extra City Kunstal Antwerp (2015), Qualities of Violence, de Appel, Amsterdam (2015), HA HA HA HA HA HA, Kunst Forum Ludwig, Aachen (2014), Sounds of Fucking, Sounds of Dying, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2013), The Introduction of Muscle, Arnolfini, Bristol (2013), thoughts, Cubitt, London, Architecture of a mothers arms, Supportico Lopez, Berlin, Government, at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2012), State of being apart in space, Kunstverein Freiburg (2011), Our Daily Permanence, Nomas Foundation, Rome (2010), Near to no attention to fears and without anything between the opposite of tears, works|projects, Bristol (2009).
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Arnolfini is one of Europe’s leading independent, contemporary arts organizations, and is the flagship art centre for the South West of England with 450,000 visitors annually. 2011 is the year of Arnolfini’s 50th anniversary. Since its foundation in 1961, Arnolfini has built an international reputation for commissioning and presenting innovative, experimental work in the visual arts, always with a strong emphasis upon audience engagement. Many thousands of artists and performers have been involved with Arnolfini during this time, often gaining their first opportunity before going on to long-term success, and this wealth of creativity has been appreciated and enjoyed by consistently large audiences. Much of this groundbreaking work would not have been made or shown in Bristol and the South West region without the Arnolfini. Previous major solo exhibitions at Arnolfini have included: Marcel Broodthaers, Bridget Riley, Richard Long and Liam Gillick, as well as more recently Cosima von Bonin in 2011.
