The IEA welcomed Donald Hải Phú Daedalus from Bronx, NY, for an artist residency over the week of June 5th, 2017. Donald, who received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, invents tools to arrive at new ideas for his work. These can be workflows, physical instruments, or methodologies and may aid in creating a project, be the project in of itself, or lead to new works altogether. With the theme of suspicion throughout his work, second-guessing what he hears, sees, and reads, Donald creates work in sculpture, video, and artist books to test the authenticity of the world around him.

During his residency, Donald spent is time across two branches of his ongoing Illinois River Project work. The first was further editing a video piece already in progress which focuses on the methods of cleaning the water and soil around the Illinois river which involves studies for high levels of lead in the areas that often see residential areas butted up to industrial areas, the technologies surrounding extraction and use of bone meal from invasive carp species to help remediate the soil in these areas, and the culture that has developed around this almost ceremonial expeditions to catch these carp. Additionally, Donald printed and bound an artist book titled Waging on Aging Centurions, which took the form of a 754 page stab-bound book with themes of the artist’s travels and his train of thoughts and ideas while moving through these locations.

Below are some images from Donald’s residency