Tacita Dean (born in 1965) was born in Canterbury, England, and she now lives and works in Berlin. She attended the Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall, England, the Supreme School of Fine Art in Athens, Greece, and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has produced works in various media, including sculpture, photography, and woodwork. Some of her unique and renowned creations, however, have involved the use of film as portrait. By projecting a series of frames, each blown up and lit to her own specifications, Dean makes the celluloid film itself the subject over and above the action in the film.
Dean's art never fails to attract recognition, earning her numerous prizes and awards.
Although Tacita Dean works with all kinds of media, her 16mm films are probably among her most well-known works. While they deal with the specificities of the medium – like the notions of time and narrative, through the use of still shots – the aesthetic quality of her films reminds of photography or painting (maybe because she had studied painting in school). Memories and atmospheres are conveyed through sensual images, colors, and light.
In her work, Tacita Dean relates the past to the present, often creating a certain melancholy: the artist focuses on stories, characters or architectural relics, and questions the notion of narrative by using both documentary and fiction devices.