Pioneering New Orleans–based multimedia artist Dawn DeDeaux (American, b. 1952) has long worked between worlds. Since the 1970s, her art has addressed an ever-widening series of gulfs: between people, between cultures and communities, and ultimately between humans and the Earth itself. Living and working in Louisiana—one of the fastest disappearing landmasses in the world—DeDeaux has been grappling with urgent questions about Earth and humanity’s survival for the last fifty years. As we face a world increasingly imperiled by rising waters, roiling temperatures, unchecked pandemics, and escalating social strife, the future DeDeaux’s work has long foreseen is now.
For DeDeaux, physicist Stephen Hawking’s prediction in the early 2000s that humans have 100 years left—not to save the planet, but to figure out how to flee—sounded an alarm bell that humanity has a limited-time-only opportunity to come together and co-exist. Her art implores us to seize our last opportunity to heal past divisions, counter present inequality, and forestall future strife.
Looking back on five decades of work, The Space Between Worlds resounds with a question that has animated DeDeaux’s entire career: If we are forced to escape—from flood, from fire, even from the Earth itself—who gets a seat on the bus? Who gets left behind?
Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds is organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art and is sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Besthoff; Ralph and Susan Brennan; Dr. and Mrs. Byron Crawford; Catherine Burns Tremaine; Sarah and Harvey Wier, in memory of Nan Wier; David B. Workman; and The Robert E. Zetzmann Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by Tina Freeman and Philip Woollam; The Arthur Roger Fund for NOMA; John C. Abajian and Scott R. Simmons; Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Davis; Melissa and John D. Gray; Renee and Stewart Peck; Hugh and Beth Lambert; Yorke Lawson; Robyn and Andrew Schwarz; Shaun and Foster Duncan; Charles L. Whited; and Friends of Bill Bertrand, in honor of his retirement. Special thanks to collaborators Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology, John Fischbach, Misha Kachkachishvili and Esplanade Recording Studio, and Pedro Segundo.
Installation view of Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds at NOMA
2021
Dawn DeDeaux
© Dawn DeDeaux
Daisy Space Clown in Black Field
2013
Dawn DeDeaux
Digital drawing on polished acrylic
88 x 40 inches
Collection of the Artist. Photo by Dawn DeDeaux. © Dawn DeDeaux
CB Radio Booths
1975–1976
Dawn DeDeaux
Installation of nine CB radio booths at various locations: Canal Street / New Orleans
Courtesy of the artist, Photo by Dawn DeDeaux
America House
1990–91
Dawn DeDeaux
Digital images, doors, framing
Dimensions variable
Collection of the Artist. Photo by Dawn DeDeaux. © Dawn DeDeaux
The Face of God, In Search Of
1996/2021
Dawn DeDeaux
Four synchronized digital projections, metal bed, and sound
Dimensions variable
Video Production and Editing: Danny Miller (1996) and Conor McBride (2021). Collection of the Artist. © Dawn DeDeaux.
Where’s Mary
2021
Dawn DeDeaux
Digital projection
Dimensions variable
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. Collection of the artist. © Dawn DeDeaux. Photo by Jonathan Traviesa.
Installation view of Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds at NOMA
2021
Dawn DeDeaux
© Dawn DeDeaux
Installation view of Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds at NOMA
2021
Dawn DeDeaux
© Dawn DeDeaux
Watermarker Highrise
2021
Dawn DeDeaux
Polished acrylic slabs with embedded digital imagesPolished acrylic slabs with embedded digital images
Collection of the artist. © Dawn DeDeaux
Installation view of Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds at NOMA
2021
Dawn DeDeaux
© Dawn DeDeaux
Parlor Games: Aleppo, Palmyra, Rome, Luxor, Athens, Sienna & New Orleans
2016–17
Dawn DeDeaux
Medallion, marine chain, wrecking ball, chain, and columns
Dimensions variable
Collection of Jack Bakker. © Dawn DeDeaux
MotherShip Ring: Alpha Omega
2012/21
Dawn DeDeaux
Aluminum truss
360 inches (diameter)
Collection of the artist. © Dawn DeDeaux
Video: The Space Between Worlds
On view at the New Orleans Museum of Art from October 22, 2021 through January 23, 2022, Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds is the first comprehensive museum exhibition for the pioneering multimedia artist Dawn DeDeaux. Read More
Video: Artist Talk with Dawn DeDeaux
Watch a virtual talk with artist Dawn DeDeaux, who discusses her comprehensive museum exhibition The Space Between Worlds at NOMA. The lecture, titled “Between Time” addresses the artwork currently on view at the museum, as well as her larger body of work. Read More
Art-Making Activity: Paper Planet Orbs
Use nature-inspired patterns and textures to create a paper orb: reminiscent of just one drop of earthly matter and an entire planet at once. Find colors and patterns in magazines that remind you of those from nature or draw your own designs to make a paper planet that’s uniquely yours. Read More
Souvenirs of Earth: Responses to Dawn DeDeaux at NOMA
Souvenirs of Earth invites us all to consider what object we might take with us if forced to flee the Earth. Begun in 2014 by artist Dawn DeDeaux, Souvenirs of Earth responds to the increasing urgency of climate change, by asking us to confront the growing threat of humanity’s extinction. Over time, the project has evolved into a community portrait of loss and survival including everything from seeds and raw earth to postcards of famous paintings, frayed books, models of famous monuments and historical sites, ashes, and knots of hair. Read More
NOMA’s Teen Art Council Visits Dawn DeDeaux at Camp Abundance
On a chilly November evening, members of the Teen Art Council (TAC) gathered under string lights on the patio at Camp Abundance, an artist residency and special event compound headed by artist and most generous host Dawn DeDeaux. DeDeaux’s retrospective exhibition The Space Between Worlds, currently on view at NOMA, has served as the focus of the TAC’s year thus far, fueling explorations in the galleries, conversations with NOMA staff members, and an upcoming creative offering for New Orleans teens. Read More
Video: The Brooklyn Rail Presents the New Social Environment #448 with Dawn DeDeaux
Artist Dawn DeDeaux joins Brooklyn Rail Editor-at-Large Dan Cameron and artist and arts administrator Joseph S. Lewis III for a virtual conversation over Zoom. The program concludes with a poetry reading by Cliff Fyman. Read More
Video: Dawn DeDeaux Interview with Judith Owen
Following the opening of The Space Between Worlds at NOMA, Judith Owen interviews Dawn DeDeaux for the web series For F#*#s Sake! Read More
NOMA Presents Career Retrospective for Acclaimed New Orleans Artist Dawn DeDeaux
The New Orleans Museum of Art 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. Read More
Q&A: Dawn DeDeaux discusses her forthcoming retrospective
Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds is the first comprehensive museum exhibition for pioneering multimedia artist Dawn DeDeaux. Since the 1970s, DeDeaux has spanned video, performance, photography and installation to create art that exists at the edge of the Anthropocene, anticipating a future imperiled by runaway population growth, breakneck industrial development, disease, and the looming… Read More
Video: Dawn DeDeaux at the Joan Mitchell Center
Dawn DeDeaux is a New Orleans-based artist and spring/summer 2021 artist-in-residence at the Joan Mitchell Center. This interview was filmed at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans in May 2021, in advance of the opening of Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds. Read More
Self-Guided Tour for Teens | Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds
Sat, January 22nd, 2022 at 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
NOMA’s Teen Art Council invites you to experience Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds through their eyes. Visit NOMA on Saturday, January 22, and pick up a free zine from the TAC featuring original artwork, and activities to make the most of your visit. TAC members will be on hand from 12 pm to 3 pm to share their experiences learning about DeDeaux’s work and creating their own art in response. Read More
Pedro Segundo in the Great Hall
Sun, January 23rd, 2022 at 6:00 PM - 6:30 PM
In conjunction with the closing of Dawn DeDeaux: The Space Between Worlds, Pedro Segundo presents a solo percussion performance in NOMA’s Great Hall. A musical composition by Segundo is featured in DeDeaux’s work Where’s Mary, and this special event is inspired by that score and the exhibition’s themes of beginnings and ends. Read More
Virtual Book Club Discussion: Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics
Thu, January 27th, 2022 at 12:00 PM
The NOMA Book Club meets monthly to discuss fiction and nonfiction books related to art in NOMA’s collection and exhibitions. It is an informal group open to anyone on a month-to-month basis. You do not have to attend every meeting or read every book! Read More
Press
Thomas Beller, “Doom and Bloom,” Airmail, October 23, 2021.
Doug McCash, “Shattered glass, burned wood, and a monstrous mummy: New NOMA show is a forbidden feast,” NOLA.com, November 30, 2021.
Sue Strachan, “Dawn DeDeaux: On the Cusp of Her NOMA Retrospective, the Artist Talks About Her Work and Her Life in New Orleans,” Mid-City Messenger, October 21, 2021.
Christopher Leach, “The Space Between Worlds: A New Experience at NOMA,” WGNO, October 20, 201.