Commissioned for her solo exhibition Out of this World,
Dean’s new film is a portrait of Hemel Hempstead, where she was raised and
unfolds as a personal essay on the town’s history as a planned community under
the New Towns Act of 1946. Titled Hemel, the work’s central reference is a
1957 sci-fi horror B-movie shot in town about the arrival of a non-human entity
that infiltrates the minds of residents and endangers life with a toxic black
slime. Playing a composite character based on herself and the movie’s detective
protagonist, Dean’s extraordinary vantage brings together real and imagined
worlds, both past and present.
Filming in 16mm with an ensemble of non-actors and
family, Hemel blurs fiction and documentary to expand a critical
reading of the colonial overtones in the original movie, while recasting its
visual language to consider the race, class, and labour dynamics of a small
English town in the post-Brexit context. As she excavates recent events,
historical archives, and personal histories that have transformed Hemel
Hempstead, an encroaching dark flood, a growing shadow, a rising plume of smoke
build layers of mystery throughout the work. Rows of identical housing,
uniformed workers, and emptied lots signal an eerie tone within the mundane,
drawing connections between the post-war ideals of the development corporation
that established the town, and the mega-corporations shaping life and industry
today. Out of this World - Hemel (2024)
Format: Gallery Exhibition (Film)
Artist: Danielle Dean
Role: Art Director
Full Info
HOD: Danielle Dean
Production: LONO Studio
Drawing from archival records and materials like film and
advertising, British-American artist Danielle Dean produces bold environments
to ground and enliven her research-based projects. An interdisciplinary artist whose work
explores the geopolitical and material processes that colonize the mind and
body. Dean has developed commissioned projects with the Wellcome Collection in
London (2023); Tate Britain, London (2022); and with Performa 21, New York
(2021). She has presented exhibitions at ICA San Diego (2023); The Contemporary
Austin, Texas (2023); Midnight moment, Times Square Arts, New York (2023); The
Whitney Biennale, New York (2022); and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
(2018). Dean holds a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts,
and is an alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program.
Hemel (2024) is co-commissioned by Mercer Union, Toronto;
Spike Island, Bristol; and The Vega Foundation. The film is produced by LONO
Studio and made possible with the generous support of Patrick Collins, Jill and
Peter Kraus, Patrick and Daniela Schmitz-Morkramer, and an Anonymous Donor. Presenting
Support for Danielle Dean: Out of this World is provided by The Vega Foundation.
Out of this World is made possible with the support of the
Canada Council for the Arts through the Arts Abroad Program. The exhibition is
presented in partnership with CONTACT Photography Festival, and Images
Festival, Toronto.
