Back to Artists 2014
Dallas Seitz
Tourist Cilla Pieces
About the Artist
Incorporating reoccurring themes of collecting, archiving, colonisation and museology Dallas Seitz's 'Tourist' is an ongoing project of reconfiguring found postcards with paint and varnish. Started in 2000 Seitz uses postcards gleaned from second-hand markets, hotel lobbies, tourist gift shops and the internet. The familiarity of the cards is made strange by way of painting out, smudging over and scratching into the image. Through obscuring, a new image appears rendering the original intention of the postcard defunct. No longer are the cards a souvenir of travel, of individual memories or shared histories but rather a dark token with a more psychoanalytic message. The mass produced multiple becomes unique and singular, reminiscent of the appropriation of images and objects of art of the 1980's. Seitz's blacking out of the postcard focuses the viewer on details or parts of the image eliminating generic representations or symbols of a time and place for the travelling consumer. Altering this focus Seitz homogenizes a | of travels, locations, time periods and memories into one new journey, one that points to a more sinister and political exploration.
About the Artist
Dallas Seitz is a Canadian artist collected by Saatchi and Zabludowicz. He lives and works in London.
Seitz uses sculpture, video, and photography to explore issues surrounding colonisation, museology and biography. Seitz studied at the Juilliard School of Performing Arts New York, Alberta College of Art Calgary and the Chelsea College of Art London. Seitz has recently exhibited at The Pump House Gallery, Castlefield Gallery, WUK, Vienna, Garboushian, Beverley Hills, Severed Head, Dublin and Black Mariah, Cork.
