Delaney Tesch (she/her)
Delaney Tesch is a multidisciplinary performance designer, photographer and installation artist from the west coast of Canada. She graduated from the University of Victoria with a BFA (distinction) in Theatre Design, and she has designed over 30 productions. She specializes in building responsive, immersive spaces and experiences using a variety of mediums, including but not limited to: textile, photography, writing, sculpture, light, painting, illustration, ceramics, and graphic design.
Works
return (issue i)
What is art if it is not being looked at? What are we if we are not being looked at?
My practice is very deeply entwined in the relationship between art and audience; I make work that is meant for people to look at, that takes the viewer on a journey with it. Performativity is the name of the game; I’m interested in playing that fakeness back, in the perception of authenticity, in the manipulation of form. I consider my practice to be one of crafting experiences, using the skills and mediums best suited to each of those experiences. My current fascination is that of decay, unravelling, and the oft misdirected energy of transformation, and how that intersects with the fluctuating perceptions of mental health in the public sphere.
return is the first issue of an experiential magazine that chronicles the narrative of a depressive episode through photography, fashion, and text. It is a conglomerate of all the garments used in the magazine’s photoshoots, stitched together as a singular expression of an extended period of time, a meeting place where things are much worse than you previously though, where the transformation is paused but always ongoing. Both the sculpture and the magazine are a comment on the irrationality of mental illness, how it affect’s one’s ability to perceive and interact with the world, and how in turn the public and social media reduce it down to bite-sized, sanitized, marketable chunks.