Dimitra Dede
‘Mayflies’
by Dimitra Dede, published by Void.
Sold out from the publisher.
Life is ephemeral.
Motherhood is a fight for perpetuation.
Is it just an illusion?
Mayflies
After the loss of her mother, the artist experiences the interruption of her own timeline on one end while having to fulfill her own role as a mother to the other end. In that end, motherhood in Dede’s universe is not connected only to warmth or joy but to cold, ice surfaces that need to stand the pressure of an overheated world.
‘Mayflies’ dramatises the creative process of mourning. Through multiple chirographic mutations of the imagery, the experience of loss in intertwined layers is represented throughout the work. Faces and bodies lingering in the shadows between conscious and subconscious in an attempt to let themselves be inert as Marcel Proust advice:
“When you are used to this horrible thing that they will forever be cast into the past, then you will gently feel her revive, returning to take her place, her entire place, beside you. At the present time, this is not yet possible. Let yourself be inert, wait till the incomprehensible power... that has broken you restores you a little, I say a little, for henceforth you will always keep something broken about you. Tell yourself this, too, for it is a kind of pleasure to know that you will never love less, that you will never be consoled, that you will constantly remember more and more.”
Mayflies – Scientific name: Ephemeroptera
The name Ephemeroptera is derived from the Greek "ephemera" meaning short-lived, and "ptera" meaning wings. This is a reference to the short lifespan of adult mayflies. Most adults are delicate insects with a very short lifespan. They emerge, reproduce, and die in a single day.
The treatment of the images has been done by using chemicals, wax, fire or by painting on negatives or prints.
The artist experiencing her own slow fading from the world, wants to add herself in the mourning matter, bringing the universal issue to her own small cosmos. her interference in the images makes them contain "her" into each piece.
Opposed to how photographic prints are usually handled with care, caution, touched only with gloves, in a museological-archival-ish way, that makes the photo print something "solemn", the techniques the artist uses to produce her final pieces of work are violent ones, that give the impression that she leaves on them the imprint of her own body as a proof of her existence.
Dimitra's violence turns the photo object into a vulnerable and somehow ill-varnished object.
The Collector’s Edition
Limited Edition of 10
(2 different prints available)
Sold out from the publisher.
The Collector’s Edition comes in 2 different versions: “Bird” and “Embrace” Prints.
Each version comes with a 22,5 x 32 cm print
In an edition of 5. Numbered and signed by the artist.
+ the standard edition of ‘Mayflies’
You can check the photographs options below.
Mayflies
Sold out
22,5 x 32 cm
112 pages
Limited edition of 500 numbered copies
Libretto softcover
ISBN 978-618-84341-3-4
Collector’s Edition
Sold out
Limited edition of 10 copies
Comes in a special “photo-frame” wood and glass box.
In 2 different versions: ‘Bird’ and ‘Embrace’ print
Each version comes with a 22,5 x 32 cm print in an edition of 5
Numbered and signed by the artist.
Dimitra Dede
Dimitra Dede (born in Greece) is a London-based visual artist working mainly with photography. She studied photography and holds a postgraduate diploma in New Media.
Her practice combines painting and the use of chemicals with photography. The making of the imagery is based on an intuitive process. Her subject matter quests the connection between space and time, memory and displacement, loss and longing, and life and the Absurd. Her work has been presented in galleries and festivals both in Europe and in America (Center for Fine Art Photography - Fort Collins, Black Box Gallery-Portland, Brighton Photo Biennial, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Unseen Festival Amsterdam etc.).
‘Mayflies' is Dimitra’s first book.
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‘Mayflies’ by Dimitra Dede is out of print.
Listen to the ‘Mayflies’ playlist on Spotify.
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✳︎ Shortlisted — The Book Awards (Prix du Livre d’Auteur) 2020 — Le Rencontres d’Arles
Photobookstore Magazine – Best Photobooks of 2019: Simon Baker
Photobookstore Magazine – Best photobook of 2020: Blake Andrews
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BELGIUM, Karel De Grote Hogeschool
ENGLAND, Bolland Library, University of the West of England
ENGLAND, Falmouth University Library
ENGLAND, University of the Arts London Library
GEORGIA, Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum
GREECE, Med Photo Fest
GREECE, National Library of Greece
GREECE, Void
LATVIA, ISSP
SPAIN, Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid
USA, Amon Carter Museum of American Art
USA, Cornell University Library
USA, Missouri State University Library
USA, MoMA Library
USA, Princeton University Library
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Photograph: Dimitra Dede
Text: Dimitra Dede
Design: João Linneu
Edit: Myrto Steirou
Printing: MAS Matbaa
Binding: MAS Matbaa
Language: English
Dimitra Dede © for the photographs and text
Void © for this edition