Simon(e) van Saarloos:

The first work I ever encountered by Dean Hutton was their Fuck White People suit: graphic, black and white lines and text arranged horizontally and constantly repeated – Fuck Fuck Fuck White White White People People. As a “Fat Queer White Trans body” in the context of South Africa, Hutton takes up space and questions who or what is entitled to take up space. In the Goldendean performance, Hutton appears on a mountain of sand, naked and completely painted in gold color, and invites the audience to take photos. They plead for it: see me. Hutton addresses the personal and political experience of hypervisibility: being visible (as a fat, queer, trans body) and at the same time invisible, unimportant (as a fat, queer, transbody). Hutton is currently working on inflatables: soft, curved, luminous, and flexible figures, often shared in public spaces. These Tenderqueer sculptures, which Hutton also calls soft-radicals, are situated, for example, outdoors in a city park. They are attached to the ground and intended as an invitation to the public: feel free to touch these comfort objects, or lose yourself in a bouncy embrace. In a society that expects fat and messy bodies to turn up traumatized and out of breath (never cheerful, horny, or beaming with a political speech), Tenderqueer attempts to create comfort and space for vulnerability.