Artists Registry
Long Island City NY United States
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Artist's Statement
Statement of Work
United Nations Church
315 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017
For Immediate Release
September, 2003
Dean Ebben: "Waiting" A September 11th Memorial
Dean Ebben graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art with a BFA in 1998. He moved to New York City where he has lived and worked for the last five years. Ebben teaches during the summer at The Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis. He is the assistant to Alison Knowles, one of the founders of Fluxus. His work has been exhibited nationally, and is in many public and private collections: UCLA Special Collections, CA, Brown University Rockefeller Library, RI, Wake Forest University, NC, Smith College, MA. Ebben is currently working on a public sculpture for the Perpich Center for the Arts, Golden Valley, MN.
In the spring of 2002, Ebben was commissioned by the United Nation's Parish to create a September 11th Memorial titled Waiting. While in the process of developing ideas, for the memorial sculpture, he immediately began to think about the community in which this sculpture would reside. The community, not only being made up of Manhattan, but also the neighborhood of Turtle Bay, the United Nations Community and the Church of the Holy Family and its parishioners.
The nature of the sculpture is secular, spiritual and contemplative. Since this sculpture would be installed at the parish of the United Nations, He thought about how the attack on September 11th not only affected the city and our country, but also the global impact this act had. It caused an awakening, which brought to light how the world has become smaller, and how global political issues have come closer to the United States. We no longer have the luxury of being isolated and protected by geography from these issues and hostilities.
The original sculpture was created from a variety of materials each with a specific meaning. The base of the sculpture is made of bronze cast wood legs. The wood used is commonly found outside buildings that are being renovated in New York City. The legs are held together at all four joints with cast fabric that was continuously wrapped. The wrapping of the joints is significant and a beautifully detailed part of the sculpture. The wrapping not only has the appearance of holding the legs together but also represents the urgent repairing of something that has been broken.
The four legs are topped with corrugated cardboard stacked on top of each other. This corrugated cardboard cast in bronze shows every detail. Every hole in the corrugation, each curled piece of paper on the edges and every undercut create a beautiful texture. When viewed from the side, it has the appearance of the striation of the earth. The use of cardboard was inspired by a previous sculpture that he created the week after September 11th. The cardboard represents urgency and impermanence. On the top of the cardboard, on the left side, there are seven wrapped "birds". Ebben has been creating the wrapped birds now for a several years. They have become an important part of his work and an object or fetish that has informed him where to go with his work. The concept stems from his interest in birds and bird migration. Journey is an important concept that he deals with and makes migration a natural fit.
Ebben remembers on September 11th seeing thousands and thousands of people walking to safety up 2nd Avenue from downtown to uptown. They were covered in white dust as they moved away from the site of tragedy to their homes or safety. New York City is a place of constant flux and movement of people. People like birds migrate when they need to, for their own safety and well being.
The act of wrapping a bird seems absurd since this restricts it from its freedom, denies its ability to migrate, to complete its journey. The wrapped birds appear to many viewers as other things. Some may have the tendency to look at this as mummified, but, they are not. They are wrapped, very much alive and "waiting".
On the right side are three hands cast from utility gloves. There are several reasons why utility gloves were selected. First they are easily recognizable to everyone. Second, they relate to the people killed at the World Trade Center. They were the working people. The gloves in the front are a reflection of the viewer's hands. You view them as if you were looking at your own hands. The one in the back is much larger and tree trunk like. Ebben sees the wrapped birds as waiting to be released from that which binds them and waiting to complete their migration.
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Education
2005-2007 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY Master of Fine Arts: with distinction
1993-1997 Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA Bachelor of Fine Arts
Selected One Person Exhibitions
2011 In The House Of The Mineral Spirits, Susan Hensel Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2010 Trails and Parallels, Alice R. Rogers and Target Galleries, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, MN
2007 Twenty-Four-Hour Show, Drawings and Video, Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2007 This One’s For You, New Video Works, Pratt Studios Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1997 Megalopolis, Haywood Gallery, Worcester, MA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 Parts of a Whole, new work by MCBA’s artist community, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN
2009 Altered Religious Texts, Museum of Biblical Art, New York, NY
2008 MIXTAPE, Tom’s Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
2008 Carbunari International Experimental Film Festival, The Florean Contemporary Art Museum, Romania
2007 Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY
2006 NEUBEES, Rider Project D.U.M.B.O. Under the Bridge Festival, New York, NY
2006 Artist Foundation, Mills Gallery, Boston, MA
2006 Media Miniature, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY
2006 P=M/V, Steuben Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2006 Soo Visual Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
2005 Open Show, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN
2003 Drawing Conclusions: Work by Artist-Critics, New York Arts Magazine Gallery, New York, NY
2002 Reactions, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
2002 Witness and Response: September 11th” Acquisitions in the Library of Congress, Washington, DC
2001 Reactions, Exit Art, New York, NY
2000 Fifteen Years Faculty and Friends, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN
2000 Foot in the Door, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
2000 Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
1999 Faculty Exhibition, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN
1999 Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ
1997 Gallery 70, Distillery Gallery, Boston, MA
1997 Gallery 70, Artist Foundation Gallery, Boston, MA
1996 Gallery 70, Haywood Gallery, Worcester, MA
Commissions
2011 Illume, MOBIA Visionary Award, awarded to William F. Baker
2003- Building Blocks, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN
2002 Waiting, Church of The Holy Family, United Nations Parish, New York, NY
Awards
2008 Cuts and Burns, Video Editing Residency, New York, NY
2004 Amigo Award, Betances Health Center, New York, NY
1996 Gallery 70, Artist Foundation, Boston, MA
Publications
2009 Trickhouse: back room, “Altered Religious Texts” by Noah Sterstrom August 26, 2009
2008 Spare Time For Children, “Chagall Celebrations” New York Times November 13, 2008; by Laurel Graeber
2004 Why I Continue to Make Art, by Dean Ebben PACE News From The Perpich Center for Arts Education, Vol. 2,2004
1999 Old Ways, New Views: Photographic Process on Hand Made Paper, Hand Papermaking, Inc., Washington DC, 1999.
Selected Reviews
2011 City Pages “In the House of the Mineral Spirits”
By Jessica Armbruster Minneapolis, MN January 12, 2011
2011 City Pages, The Dressing Room “Dean Ebben’s In the House of the Mineral Spirits’ at the Susan Hensel Gallery” By Coco Mault
Minneapolis, MN January 12, 2011
2010 Minnesota Public Radio, State of the Arts “Similar journeys, on different paths”, By Marianne Combs May 19th, 2010
2009 Asphalt Eden, “Altered Religious Texts” August 3, 2009
2004 China Press, New York, NY November 20th 2004
2004 Grand Street News, “Betances Unveils Painting, Celebrates Jazz” New York, NY November 1, 2004
2002 NBC KARE 11 interview for “Whatever” Minneapolis, MN
2002 Sun Post, New Hope, MN by Sue Webber September 7th
1999 Hand Papermaking Magazine, winter 1999, Volume 14, Number 2: “Reaching Back Moving Forward: Photos on Handmade Paper”, by John Risseeuw
1997 Boston Herald, Boston, MA March 9th, 1997
Teaching Experience
2010 Valley Ridge Art Studio, Muscoda, WI Alternative Photo Process.
2008 Museum of Biblical Art New York, NY “Traveling With Chagall” Non- Adhesive Book Binding and Mono Printing
2008-10 Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN Alternative Photo Process and Alternative Printing Process.
2005-07 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY Graduate Assistant, Art History Dept. Assistant to Dr. Robert Morgan
1997- 2001 Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN Alternative Photo Process and Alternative Printing Process.
1998 Carriage House Paper, Brooklyn, NY
Public Collections
University of California, CA, Columbia University, IL,
Arizona State University Library, AZ, UCLA Special Collections, CA,
Brown University Rockefeller Library, RI, Idaho State University Library, ID,
University of Utah Marriott Library, UT, Wake Forest University, NC,
Smith College, MA, Dieu Donne Paper Mill Inc, NY, University of Iowa Library, IA,
Rochester Institute of Technology Wallace Library, NY, Library of Congress,
Washington DC, Church of the Holy Family The United Nations Parish, NY,
Betances Health Center, NY