Michael Dean at Progetto

Artist: Michael Dean

Exhibition title: Kiss Emitting Die Odes

Venue: Progetto, Lecce, Italy

Date: October 13 – December 31, 2020

Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Progetto

I don’t know about you but I’ve been kissing these walls for want of lips to kiss in this new normal limit to intimacy unbound.

Thirty two works, thirty two pages. The installation is a book. The exhibition is a publication. The publication is entitled Kiss Emitting Die Odes. Take the corners of four rooms for booky spines and the sixteen walls for thirty two pages. Enter. Open. Exhibit. Publish. Exit. Close.

I kissed all this inanimates with my lips for resistance, in glue
wrote for want of empathic capacitors, kissing living lust
secrete cement eventual they me, to and from you
lippy kiss calligraphy, in a pout point pen of dust

Kissed lip stick glue
wrote out all this living lust
cement eventual they me and you
in a pout point pen of dust

Kissing kisses kissed glue
registration writing living lust
cement eventual they me and you
in syntactic pouts of fucking dust

Empathic capacitor kisses in dewy glue
operated with this fucking living lust
secrete cement eventual they me and you
kisses kissed in fucking dust

Kissed lip stick glue
writing this with living lust
cement eventual they me and you
in an out my petals pout to dust
for fucksake

Secrete spittle kiss oil and glue
pronounced in a alone syntax of living lust
cement eventual this new me and you
in a pout stayed in dust

Kissed with glue
and this with lust
syntax cement eventual
in a pout of dust

While the transmutation of language is particularly important to Dean’s practice, his works are not intended to be read as words, but rather to be identified as an element of language in their own form and imagined as a word or idea. He attributes a physical form to a personally developed language, based on a series of typographic alphabets, which he designs himself.

Although sculpture is one of the central media of the Artist, language and text form the basis of his individual works and sometimes of entire exhibitions. Using language as a fragment and an act, similar to an act of speech, which is not only a statement, but also an action, Michael Dean translates text fragments and typographies into physical experiences.

Michael Dean (b. 1977, Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K.) lives and works in London. He graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2001 with a BA Fine Art (Studio Practice and Contemporary Critical Theory). Dean’s work begins with his own writing, abstracting text into sculptures and immersive installations that explore language, the body, and intimacy.

In 2021, Dean will have a solo exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery in NYC and Mendes Wood in São Paulo. Recent solo exhibitions include: Tu Texto Aquí, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Having You On , BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom, Teaxths and Angeruage, Portikus, Frankfurt, 2017, Sic Glyphs, South London Gallery, London, 2016, Lost True Leaves, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, 2016. In 2017, Dean participated in Skulptur Projekt Münster, and in 2016, was shortlisted for the Turner Prize.

Additionally, Dean’s work has been included in institutional group exhibitions such as Scrivere Disegnando/When Language Seeks Its Other, CAC, Geneva (2020) The Hepworth Prize for Sculpture 2018, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield (2018); Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017, Münster (2017); Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London (2016); Sculptures Also Die, Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina, Florence, (2015); Mirror City, Hayward Gallery London, London (2014); A History of Inspiration, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013).

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, baci (Working Title), 2020, Lipstick on bookpage, 27.5 x 19.5 cm / 11 x 7.5 in

Michael Dean, kiss emitting die odes (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 105.5 x 77 cm / 41.5 x 30.25 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, ffff (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil and carbon powder on paper, 46.5 x 64 cm / 18.5 x 25.25 in

Michael Dean, hate hate (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 46.5 x 64 cm / 18.5 x 25.25 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, love love (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 71 x 53 cm / 27.75 x 20.75 in

Michael Dean, suicide apologise (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 46.5 x 64 cm / 18.5 x 25.25 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, your arse the stars (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 46.5 x 34.5 cm / 18.5 x 13.5 in

Michael Dean, last kiss last sip (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 46.5 x 34.5 cm / 18.5 x 13.5 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, dont relax (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil and cement on paper, 34.5 x 46.5 cm / 13.5 x 18.5 in

Michael Dean, dont relax (Working Title), 2020, Lipstick on paper, 34.5 x 46.5 cm / 13.5 x 18.5 in

Michael Dean, blood (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 54.5 x 40 cm / 21.5 x 15.75 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, close (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 54.5 x 40 cm / 21.5 x 15.75 in

Michael Dean, now (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 54.5 x 40 cm / 21.5 x 15.75 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, pronounce (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 54.5 x 40 cm / 21.5 x 15.75 in

Michael Dean, care (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 54.5 x 40 cm / 21.5 x 15.75 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, lust (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 54.5 x 40 cm / 21.5 x 15.75 in

Michael Dean, morta (Unfucking Titled), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 71 x 53 cm / 20.75 x 28 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, ti amo (Unfucking Titled), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 71 x 53 cm / 20.75 x 28 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, xxxx xxx (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 105.5 x 77 cm / 41.5 x 30.25 in

Michael Dean, towards a pour theatre (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on found poster, 50 x 35 cm / 19.75 x 13.75 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, analogue mortal (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 105.5 x 77 cm / 41.5 x 30.25 in

Michael Dean, ffff (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 105.5 x 77 cm / 41.5 x 30.25 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, ti amo (Unfucking Titled), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 71 x 53 cm / 20.75 x 28 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, ha ha (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 75 x 55 cm / 29.5 x 21.5 in

Michael Dean, something gives (Unfucking Titled), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 75 x 55 cm / 29.5 x 21.5 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, wet guilt (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 46.5 x 34.5 cm / 18.5 x 13.5 in

Michael Dean, writing tomorrow with yesterday using yesterday today writing yesterday today for tomorrow (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 105.5 x 77 cm / 41.5 x 30.25 in

Michael Dean, Kiss Emitting Die Odes, 2020, exhibition view, Progetto, Lecce

Michael Dean, shored shores shore shored shores shoring shoring shored shores kissed kisses kiss kissed kisses kissing kissing kissed kisses (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 77 x 105.5 cm / 30.25 x 41.5 in

Michael Dean, dusty capacity if only this shit was some empathic capacitor could take they pain holding sad and happy flat synthetic capacitor storage dust staying dry becoming body add tears to bone aggregate (Working Title), 2020, Olive oil, lipstick and cement on paper, 105.5 x 77 cm / 41.5 x 30.25 in