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Donald Dede is an artist whose work follows on from the tradition of the Cubists and Surrealists. He makes us take a fresh look at what is around us in a way that mirrors our own experiences through blending different images in the same picture. The results are startling. His work has been compared to the fantasies we all have, but especially of children, who can conjure up amazing places, which may really exist, or exist only in their minds. For example, an upturned chair can
become a castle.
"We all inhabit many worlds, as children do," says Dede."
"When we are faced with a magnificent landscape, painting, or photograph we not only observe, but simultaneaously can be having other thoughts and feelings, etc. For example, memories, smells, touch and emotions can be evoked. When you look at one thing you inevitably are not looking at other things," he continues..
Dede's world is a place where anything can happen. "It is our world for in our minds we can imagine anything,"
he says.
Degas said, "Art is the lie whereby we tell the truth."
When photography came in the 1850's people thought that it would be the death of art, as it was a better way of conveying reality, or Truth. But that proved
not to be so.
Then the Surrealists came and they made photo montage in paint as well as in photography. They juxtaposed the images. They took away the conventional meaning of an object and gave it another one. They attempted to convey the variety of Truths of what was in front of them. Max Ernst did this in paint and Man Ray did it with photography.
Now with the advent of digital images and the computer the artist can experiment in much more playful and inventive ways. In a way the Digital artist is following on from the Cubists and the Surrealists. This is what Dede is doing.
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Scorched Earth
Open Sea
