Tacita Dean, La Puerta del Diablo

The limited edition photograph La Puerta del Diablo by Tacita Dean captures a dramatic natural rock formation, evoking a sense of mystery and otherworldliness. The photo edition was created as part of the artwork Significant Form. For this work, Dean selected 130 postcards, which she had gathered at flea markets over many decades. She re-photographed the pictures and photochemically hand-printed them at various scales and on a variety of papers. The selected postcards depict sculptural forms, offering an intuitive journey through natural and artistic objects.

Tacita Dean, an esteemed British artist, is celebrated for her conceptual artworks, including films, photographs, and drawings. Her art delves into themes of chance, memory, and the passage of time, frequently incorporating nautical imagery and capturing the poetic decay of derelict spaces. Dean’s artwork is particularly noted for its meticulous attention to the human traces left in nature, recording how these marks withstand or change over time. In her filmmaking, Dean exhibits a profound reverence for the process and texture of analogue film, embracing the medium’s inherent unpredictability. She often utilizes long takes and static shots that allow the viewer to engage deeply with the visual narrative and its subtle developments. Through her art, Dean both celebrates the unique beauty of 16mm film and expresses a sense of loss over its gradual disappearance in the digital age. She has remarked, “Digital is so known, and film is all about the unknown,” underscoring her preference for the mysterious and evocative qualities that film imparts to her work. Dean’s artworks stand out for their ability to blend technical mastery with a philosophical inquiry into the ways we perceive and memorialize the world around us. This approach not only highlights the technical aspects of film but also enriches the viewer’s understanding of her thematic focus on temporality and memory. The visual artist was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998, won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006 and the Kurt Schwitters Prize in 2009, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. Dean has been the subject of solo exhibitions at major institutions including Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; The Royal Academy of Arts, London; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen; New Museum, New York, United Sates; Tate Modern, London, UK; and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria. Tacita Dean was born in 1965 in Canterbury, UK. She lives and works in Berlin, Germany, and Los Angeles, California.

Tacita Dean, La Puerta del Diablo