Dean Sameshima

DEAN SAMESHIMA (Torrance, California, 1971).
“Untitled (Well Hung),” 2003.
Photograph, Fuji-Flex print. Copy 1/3, from an edition of 3 + 1 A.P.
Bears a Peres Projects label on the reverse, with the work’s identification and numbering.
Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Peres Projects, Berlin, signed by Javier Peres and dated September 9, 2016.
Reference bibliography for the series: Emily Pethick, “Critic’s Pick,” Artforum.com, April 2004; BUTT Magazine, “Deaf Dude,” Spring 2004. Both references appear in the artist’s official bibliography.
Measurements: 31 x 24.5 cm (image); 53.5 x 47 cm (frame).

Dated 2003, “Untitled (Well Hung)” is part of *Deaf Dude*, one of Dean Sameshima’s most representative early series and a clear precursor to his later exploration of archiving, desire, and queer culture. The series comprises seventeen images rephotographed from a 1980s pornographic magazine, in which a model—presumably deaf—expresses various sexually explicit terms through sign language. By keeping the mechanical layout of the original publication visible, Sameshima highlights the appropriated nature of the image and transforms ephemeral material into a photographic object and cultural document.

In *Untitled (Well Hung)*, the correspondence between the hand gesture and the title makes the relationship between body and language—which structures the series—particularly evident. The photograph is thus not limited to reproducing an erotic image, but rather emphasizes the codes through which desire is named, communicated, and disseminated. This interest in recovering and recontextualizing images from marginalized publications and subcultures remains one of the central pillars of Sameshima’s practice.

Since the 1990s, Dean Sameshima has developed a practice centered on photography, archiving, and the memory of queer culture. In 2024, he participated in the 60th Venice Biennale, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. His work is included in collections such as the Getty Museum, the Hammer Museum, LACMA, MOCA Los Angeles, and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). He lives and works in Berlin.