Anthony Dean Showcases Collaborative Work

Anthony Dean is a visiting professor and sound designer at Wesleyan. They are a sound artist, composer, and media designer focused on telling stories of community and the self. Their works can be seen and heard in theater, film, radio, and installations, and are all intended to bring listeners together. Their latest work includes an exciting collaboration with Mimi Park this past December. In a joint project for the Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art in New York City, Dean assisted in the development of Murmuring in blue kaleidoscope, a temporary sculptural installation and improvised musical performance.

According to the Swiss Institute, “Park arranges the scene in correspondence with the astral map directly above” the Institute. “A tuning fork’s crystalline chime signals the beginning of this entropic ballet, in which the Coplees are set in motion. As they approach and pass an array of theremins, the room swells with sound. An impromptu concerto fueled by hybridized solar and electrochemical energy, the movement of the audience and the inanimate objects, acted upon by external forces, ebbs and flows, ending only when the Coplees lose their charge and come to rest. Where they lie will dictate the installation’s final form.”

Image from Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art

“The relation between the duration of a life and the duration of a lifeform’s total decomposition is of interest to Park,” the description continues, “who here orchestrates an enchanting study of decline, expiry and what literally lies beneath when life ends, be it a built structure or raw earth. The action at SI unfolds atop an expanse of cardboard stamped with laser-cut images of Park’s sculptures, as well as images of fossils sourced from digital archives. What is preserved, absorbed and transformed by the terrain of this planet is repeatedly represented by Park’s stamps. In this way, afterlives are omnipresent in Murmuring in blue kaleidoscope. When living things stop living, they begin the interminable process of becoming energy once again.”

Image of several pieces from Nothing Under Heaven. Photo Credit: Cary Whittier

Professor Dean also recently showed work in a collaborative installation on display at the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University. The work was part of the show Nothing Under Heaven. This exhibition, according to the Segal Gallery site, “brings together new commissions and recent works that explore the need for connection, pleasure, and agency within oppressive systems.” The exhibition was up from September to December of 2022.