Dean Sameshima

DEAN SAMESHIMA (Torrance, California, 1971).
“Untitled (Erection),” 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: C. Kraus, J. Tumlir, and J. McFadden, *LA Artland. Contemporary Art from Los Angeles*, London, 2005, p. 131 (another copy from the edition reproduced).
Measurements: 31 x 24.5 cm (image); 53.5 x 47 cm (frame).

Dated 2003, “Untitled (Erection)” belongs to one of the most recognizable early bodies of work by Dean Sameshima, developed through the reappropriation of images from publications linked to gay culture. It is directly related to *Deaf Dude*, a series from that same year consisting of seventeen rephotographs taken from an 1980s pornographic magazine, in which a model—presumably deaf—communicates various sexually explicit terms through sign language. The original’s print grid remains deliberately visible, emphasizing both the image’s editorial origin and the process of appropriation that defines the work.

In this photograph, the relationship between the hand gestures, the body, and the title transforms the image into a kind of visual sign, shifting it from its original context toward a reflection on the codes through which desire is represented and conveyed. This focus on printed materials, coded languages, and archives of queer culture constitutes a fundamental thread in Sameshima’s subsequent career. The documentary interest of this 2003 series is reinforced by its early dissemination: “Deaf Dude” appeared in BUTT Magazine in 2004 and was reviewed by Emily Pethick in Artforum that same year.

Since the 1990s, Dean Sameshima has developed a practice centered on photography, archiving, and the memory of spaces, publications, and codes linked to queer culture. In 2024, he was included in the 60th Venice Biennale, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. His work is part of 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.