Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds at New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), through January 23, 2022

“The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds, the first comprehensive museum exhibition for the pioneering multimedia artist Dawn DeDeaux, on view October 22, 2021 through January 23, 2022. One of the first American artists to connect questions about social justice to emerging environmental concerns, DeDeaux’s art responds to an uncertain future imperiled by runaway population growth, breakneck industrial development, and the imminent threat of climate change. 

Since the 1970s, DeDeaux’s practice has included video, performance, photography, sculpture, and installation to create art that grapples with the social, political, and environmental impacts of the Anthropocene, and responds to the unique threats facing her home state of Louisiana, one of the fastest disappearing landmasses in the world. The Space Between Worlds is organized around a series of immersive installations that span DeDeaux’s entire 50-year career. Featured are early projects like CB Radio Booths, which linked communities across New Orleans via radio and satellite, to more recent works from her MotherShip series, which plots our escape from a ruined earth, and a brand new immersive 70-foot video installation entitled Where’s Mary.” — New Orleans Museum of Art  

Dawn DeDeaux, CB Radio Booths, 1975- 76, Installation view, dimensions variable, Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by Seth Boonchai
Dawn DeDeaux, America House, 1989- 91/2021, Digital drawings, metal framing, motion detector lights, dimensions variable, Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by Seth Boonchai
Dawn DeDeaux, The Face of God, In Search of, 1996/2021, Four synchronized video projections, metal bed, dimensions variable, Video production and editing: Danny Miller (1996) and Conor McBride (2021), Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by Seth Boonchai
Dawn DeDeaux, The Face of God, In Search of, 1996/2021, Four synchronized video projections, metal bed, dimensions variable, Video production and editing: Danny Miller (1996) and Conor McBride (2021), Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by the artist
Right: Dawn DeDeaux, Where’s Mary, 2021 (detail), Digital projection and found sculpture, 156 x 840 inches, Video Production: Dave Greber, Filming: John Bagnall and Elsa Kern from Fish Pot Studio, Paul Costello; Sound: Dawn DeDeaux, Pedro Segundo; Produced by John Fischbach with Westley Fontenot and Misha Kachkachishvili of Esplanade Recording Studio; Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux Dawn DeDeaux, The Face of God, In Search of, 1996/2021 (detail), Four synchronized video projections, metal bed, dimensions variable, Video production and editing: Danny Miller (1996) and Conor McBride (2021), Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux Photo by the artist
Dawn DeDeaux, Watermarker Highrise, 2021, Polished acrylic with embedded digital images, dimensions variable, Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by Seth Boonchai
Right: Dawn DeDeaux, Calvary at Ground Zero: Louisiana’s Vanishing Landscape, 2014–16, Six digital drawing on six metal panels, 114 x 48 inches (each), Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux Middle: Dawn DeDeaux, Parlor Games: Aleppo, Palmyra, Rome, Luxor, Athens, Sienna & New Orleans, 2016–17, Medallion, marine chain, wrecking ball, chain, columns, dimensions variable Collection of Jack Bakker © Dawn DeDeaux
Foreground: Dawn DeDeaux, The Mantle (I’ve Seen the Future and It Was Yesterday), 2016–17, Aluminum mantle, found objects, dimensions variable, Collection of Jack Bakker © Dawn DeDeaux Middle: Dawn DeDeaux, Parlor Games: Aleppo, Palmyra, Rome, Luxor, Athens, Sienna & New Orleans, 2016–17, Medallion, marine chain, wrecking ball, chain, columns, dimensions variable Collection of Jack Bakker © Dawn DeDeaux Background: Dawn DeDeaux, Calvary at Ground Zero: Louisiana’s Vanishing Landscape, 2014–16, Six digital drawing on six metal panels, 114 x 48 inches (each), Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux Photo by Seth Boonchai
Foreground: Dawn DeDeaux, Parlor Games: Aleppo, Palmyra, Rome, Luxor, Athens, Sienna & New Orleans, 2016–17, Medallion, marine chain, wrecking ball, chain, columns, dimensions variable Collection of Jack Bakker © Dawn DeDeaux Background: Dawn DeDeaux, The Mantle (I’ve Seen the Future and It Was Yesterday), 2016–17, Aluminum mantle, found objects, dimensions variable, Collection of Jack Bakker © Dawn DeDeaux Background: Dawn DeDeaux, MotherShip Ring: Alpha Omega, 2012/2021, Aluminum truss, 360 inches (diameter) Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux Photo by the artist
Foreground: Dawn DeDeaux, MotherShip Ring: Alpha Omega, 2012/2021, Aluminum truss, 360 inches (diameter) Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux Background: Dawn DeDeaux, The Day Old Forster Oak Fell Into the Ring, 2011, Digital drawing on aluminum, 120 x 432 inches, Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux Photo by Seth Boonchai
Dawn DeDeaux, Where’s Mary, 2021 (detail), Digital projection and found sculpture, 156 x 840 inches, Video Production: Dave Greber, Filming: John Bagnall and Elsa Kern from Fish Pot Studio, Paul Costello; Sound: Dawn DeDeaux, Pedro Segundo; Produced by John Fischbach with Westley Fontenot and Misha Kachkachishvili of Esplanade Recording Studio; Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by Jonathan Traviesa
Dawn DeDeaux, Where’s Mary, 2021 (detail), Digital projection and found sculpture, 156 x 840 inches, Video Production: Dave Greber, Filming: John Bagnall and Elsa Kern from Fish Pot Studio, Paul Costello; Sound: Dawn DeDeaux, Pedro Segundo; Produced by John Fischbach with Westley Fontenot and Misha Kachkachishvili of Esplanade Recording Studio; Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by Jonathan Traviesa
Dawn DeDeaux, Where’s Mary, 2021 (detail), Digital projection and found sculpture, 156 x 840 inches, Video Production: Dave Greber, Filming: John Bagnall and Elsa Kern from Fish Pot Studio, Paul Costello; Sound: Dawn DeDeaux, Pedro Segundo; Produced by John Fischbach with Westley Fontenot and Misha Kachkachishvili of Esplanade Recording Studio; Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by Jonathan Traviesa
Dawn DeDeaux, Paradise Lost, 2021, Found wrought iron gate, Collection of the Artist © Dawn DeDeaux, Photo by the artist

“Dawn DeDeaux has long grappled with existential questions surrounding earth and humanity’s survival,” said Susan Taylor, Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “Originally scheduled for Fall 2020 but twice postponed—once due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and again because of the recent climate change-induced catastrophe of Hurricane Ida—the works and messages presented in the exhibition are more relevant than ever as we navigate this challenging time.”

Images courtesy New Orleans Museum of Art.