Concept Muscle

Julian Dashper (1960-2009), artist, died 30 July, 49, in Auckland. Julian had “the unique perspective of attending to an internationalist art history from a distance, enabling him to devise strategies to work around his geographical isolation whilst simultaneously articulating its effects” (curator Christina Barton). “Distance becomes us, and, in 1992 he inserted an exhibition-as-advertisement in Artforum magazine. Artfrom New Zealand comically defied the politics and constraints of the one-way conversation, and marked out the possibilities of the self made guy” (Natasha Conland). He was an internationalist from West Auckland in Texan boots. The geography of his exhibitions are the story of his working life: Trieste, Leiden, Topolove, Canberra, Aachen, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Kluzé, Saskatchewan, Sydney, Versa, Copenhagen, Tokyo, London, Marfa, Berlin, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Houston, Oxford, Los Angeles, Athens, Brussels, Sioux City, San Luis Obispo, Lincoln, New York City, Wichita, Melbourne, Oslo, Birmingham, Vienna, Basel, Toowoomba, Den Haag, Durban, Staten Island. Of his 2005 Iowa exhibition, Larry Taylor wrote “Sioux City is just off of about everyone’s map, even in an era of MapQuest. Perhaps that, ironically, makes it the place to begin reasserting some concept muscle: less hampered by the standard coastal baggage, such a locale offers its artistic self tabula rasa.”

Julian Dashper: 1960 – 30 July 2009