Plot

Solo exhibition, a site specific installation of 30 works, resulting from a six month residency at the Wordsworth Trust. Plot was a site-specific project developed during a 6 month residency at the Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, the internationally acclaimed centre for the study of Romanticism, that has an extensive archive, as well as a museum, and contemporary arts programmes. The residency culminated in a solo exhibition of 30 works and the publication of a book, Plot, designed by Dean and included as a work within the exhibition, and now distributed by Cornerhouse (ISBN: 1-905256-15-9). Dean worked in relation to the local environs (nature, literature, tourism), the gallery space (a former sweetshop), reflecting on her behaviour in these contexts. She mostly worked with the materials and equipment that were available to be found, bought or borrowed in and around Grasmere, or within walking distance (see book, Plot, p.24-28). Other influential factors were the boathouse studio, without electricity or running water, and a neglected allotment that she cultivated, which became a productive source of both materials and ideas. Examples include: a hosepipe, roots, flowers, grass, old window frames; Little Sod, a small sod of earth cast in bronze; Partially Uplifted Telly, a 12 second looped video of a molehill in the process of being made, and not, shown on a television placed at an upward tilt on the actual molehill. This engagement with the complexities of place significantly informed Dean’s next project, for which she was interviewed for the ACE Helen Chadwick Fellowship, 2007. ‘Plot’ reviews include Art Monthly (March 2007), and the online “Artists’ Newsletter”. Dean was interviewed for Radio 4’s Open Country, (November 2006). The exhibition was advertised in Frieze, Art Monthly and Modern Painters. The project was funded by Wordsworth Trust, ACE North West and South Lakeland District Council (£14,700)