Dean Baldwin
Friday, April 5 at 6:00pm Concordia University, VA-114 1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W. Admission for all Conversations in Contemporary Art events is free and open to the general public. Seating is first come, first serve. The lectures will be held in English. Tous les événements du programme Conversation in Contemporary Art sont gratuits et ouverts au public. Les sièges sont assignés selon le principe du premier arrivé, premier servi. Les conférences se dérouleront en anglais. _ All media is time-based, in the work of Dean Baldwin. A piece of fruit can be turned or wrung; an event erupted; an evening slowed. In every case, a river runs. Baldwin, an artist who wonders if he’s missing his collective, elevates and underscores our relations. His is the happy chaos of making things happen from the things to hand. “I use the energy it takes to commit to a mildly mad occurrence, convince others to get on board, struggle through the logistic hurdles, fear the taste of potential failure, and partake of ensuing celebrations.” At turns host, guest, and irreverent spectator, Baldwin offers a radical hospitality that “helps us to mean.” Baldwin channels Dan Graham’s pronouncement that all artists “dream of doing something that’s more social, more collaborative, and more real than art.” With the crack of a bottle against the bow of a boat, time is launched and stretched out, and we are seated, invited to make an occurrence, take a story for telling. Peripatetic, opulent, but also pastoral, Baldwin’s practice often sits agrarian means within an artworld setting. Through a process that focuses on its own occasioning, he pays close attention to the meaning of his materials, the structures he ought to fit or resist, and what requirements there are, of both the wood and the road, to bend. Bio Dean Baldwin (b. 1973) gambols across installation, performance, and photographic media. Toronto-born and Montreal-based, he moves on themes of hospitality, conviviality, performative still-life, and the structural discrepancies around which we pivot. Baldwin has exhibited in Rome, Tasmania, London, Mumbai, New York City, Quebec City, and Winnipeg, among others. He shows with Katherine Mulherin Projects (Toronto and NYC) and Parisian Laundry (Montreal).
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Related Links:
Dean Baldwin Conversations in Contemporary Art The Department of Studio Arts - MFA Program