Richard Dean Hughes

British b. 1987 British artist Richard Dean Hughes explores the slippery relationship between the real and hypothetical. Hughes often revisits and describes a personal, internal space, taking artifacts, feelings, and “visuals” from imagined scenarios, bringing them into real time through the manipulation of material and collisional objects. His sculptures question the idea of plausibility and their own existence, acting as representational displays of the spaces Hughes seeks to describe.

Often drawing from history, Hughes generates a real sense of place and time within his work, evoking frustration in the viewer by emphasizing a disconnect with the primary content. The inclusion of the majestic and the past tense exaggerates changes in modern society and our fragile relationship with nature, tradition, and history. As Hughes explains: “For me I am interested in the sensation, be it positive or negative, we feel when we acknowledge that history seems so much more profound than the present, it is in some way this sensation, or this illusion, that I try to embed within the work.”