DEAN HUTTON
BA (UNISA); Higher Diploma in Journalism, Rhodes University; MA Cum Laude, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town (UCT).
Dean Hutton makes trouble. Working at the intersections of trans media visual culture, performance and community action, their art practice bridges genres of documentary, fiction and fantasy to produce radical queer counter narratives, and experiences for repair and resistance. They embrace collaborative praxis and embodied play to produce new forms of artWork – sculptural objects made from sustainable materials and living biomatter that work to support ecosystem health and build cultural and ecological value for local communities.
They are Director of CAMP (Community Art Mobilisation Project) where they “make soft spaces for hard questions” as they leverage art practice and cultural production to create “narrative repair” by developing impactful visual strategies, content and material with artists, activists, and frontline communities for direct actions and interventions that connect intersectional struggles, green development, and climate justice with our daily lives and potent futures.
Hutton’s ‘Goldendean’ is an evolving and on-going public performance exploring societal fascination with flesh, in particular the flesh of non-normative queer bodies, and how they ‘inhabit and take space, challenging the arbitrary values placed on normalisation and assimilation’. Their strategy of simple disruptive actions shares moments of soft courage, affirming the rights of all bodies to exist, be celebrated and protected.
The far-reaching impact of their work, beyond the mediated aesthetic of the cultural and social contexts in which it appears is most evident in the 2017 South African Equality Court ruling dismissing charges of Hate Speech laid against the exhibition of art posters displaying the words “Fuck White People” at the South African Iziko National Gallery. Situating Dean Hutton’s work in a broader anti-colonial struggle to “confront, reject and dismantle structures, systems, knowledge, skills, and attitudes of power that keep white people racist.” Chief Magistrate DM Thulare, ruled that the work’s context, as art, brought attention to structural racism and white supremacy, drawing South Africans to a “critical moment of self-reflection” of race and privilege and hurt feelings.
Goldendean has exhibited at the Spier Light Festival (2019; 2024, 2025); Amsterdam Light Festival 2024. Take Me Somewhere Festival Glasgow, Scotland; and the Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town. Their work is currently on a five-city tour of India. Hutton’s work was shown on the VIAD exhibition Imminent and Eminent Ecologies (2024, FADA Gallery, UJ).
Dean Hutton joined VIAD in 2024.
