This exhibition was selected as part of Paris Oomph, a roundup of the best shows in town during October 2022.
Dean grew up in a sub-proletarian community in Newcastle-upon- Tyne, notoriously attending the “Worst school in the United Kingdom” (Crace, 1999). Dean’s work begins with his own writing, abstracting text into sculpture and immersive installations including transient publications that explore the body, intimacy and language. Dean has said, “I use my enemies dictionary.” A reference to the artist’s mother tongue, a working-class dialect of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, called “Geordie,” and the common experience of being forced to operate in the mother tongue of the middle and upper class, sometimes referred to as “Queen’s English.” A so-called ‘standard English’, closed to communities of poverty and or marginalisation.
at Goswell Road, Paris
until November 18, 2022