Tacita Dean

This exhibition presents a selection of recent works that can be seen as still lives, by using imagery of various natural forms, including trees and neolithic stones or ‘dolmens’, and by focussing on the gradual processes of growth, transformation and demise.

Though primarily known for her 16mm film installations, Dean’s work ranges considerably in both subject and medium, with drawing a significant and enduring component. Central to all of the works in the exhibition, and her practice in general, is an acute awareness of time and the weight of history that accompanies it. Using the still life as a means of observing temporality Dean’s work often acts as a memento mori, reminding us of our own mortality, and the endurance of nature.

Perhaps of interest to BPH members are six 19th century damaged albumen silver prints of bare trees taken by the German photographer, August Kotzsch. Dean has laboriously filled the backgrounds of these photographs with white gouache, incarcerating the deciduous branches forever leafless, highlighting its barren, fruitless beauty.