Michael Dean

Exploring the three-dimensional possibilities of language, Dean models each word used through an alphabet in human size and shape, using simple materials for his sculptures such as concrete, steel, MDF wood, but also padlocks and dyed books resuming his writings.  For over ten years, Michael Dean has been producing performances of rare intensity, which accompany his exhibitions around the world, and during which he constantly pushes the limits of the medium, using his own voice to the point of no return. As part of Tendre-sur-Estime, an exhibition in five chapters by Michael Dean initiated by curator Julie Boukobza, the artist offers a reading, accompanied by his eldest son, of "Love Dancing on Hate's Grave" one of the artist's latest books published in 2019.

During this loud recital in the heart of the Saint Eustache Church, the artist replaces the word "hate" with "hurt" in each sentence, and chants this text ad infinitum, spilling with happiness, fizzing with sadness, hunger, thirst and or rage.  A polar invocation of the emotions that unite a father to his son.  An acoustic conjuring that makes every feeling palpable, the human voice unmuzzled and its timbre entwined, towards the sky, using the architectural diaphragm of the church as lungs lent temporarily to the artist and his son to vent and to propel the engaging noises of the text.

Reading with Erol Dean (premiere)