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Dean Tirkot

@deantirkot

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A little update following yesterday’s personal video.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who reached out with kind words, practical advice, contacts and suggestions. I’ve received some genuinely useful leads and have already started following them up. I really appreciate it. ❤️

This morning I drove 60 kilometres into internet reception to charge my power station, catch up on messages and do a bit of internetting before heading back to camp.

I thought I’d show you how I’m actually living, what my days look like and how I’m looking after myself.

I’m comfortable out here, and there are parts of this lifestyle I genuinely love. But I didn’t come out here intending to live indefinitely under a makeshift shelter built from my photographic equipment! When it rains, things get interesting. 😂

My van is my little Tokyo sleeping capsule, my photographic stands double as a shade structure, and almost everything I own serves multiple purposes.

Solar keeps my fridge running, but it doesn’t provide enough power to properly recharge my power station. And because of the van’s mechanical issues, I can’t simply leave it idling to charge. I actually need to drive it.

I’m also dealing with an electrical gremlin and DPF issue that can send the van into limp mode. More diagnostics are planned when I reach Townsville.

In the meantime, I’m eating, sleeping, making photographs, filming and getting on with my projects.

Yesterday evening I photographed a little still life constructed from things I found around camp. This morning I discovered some of the flowers had opened. Those little surprises are exactly why I love being out here.

Yesterday’s video understandably concerned some people. My circumstances are difficult, and the uncertainty is frightening, but there are genuinely beautiful things happening in my life too.

I’m still curious, still making art and still finding things that make me laugh.

Thank you again for all the support. It means a lot.

Now I’m heading back to Camp Wetview to get some work done! 😂🌧️

❤️ Dean by @deantirkot

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8 hours ago

After nearly twenty years in a relationship, I’ve found myself separated, living in my van and facing significant financial and legal uncertainty while managing diagnosed PTSD.

I’ve spent the past few months travelling through remote Australia, making art, photographing, filming and trying to rebuild my life. But behind the photographs and videos, there’s a much more complicated reality.

I’m sharing this because I’ve reached a point where I need practical help navigating a family law settlement and overcoming barriers to accessing legal funding.

I’m not looking for sympathy, and I’m not asking anyone to take sides. I’m simply trying to find a fair resolution and some stability so I can move forward.

If you have experience with Australian family law, legal assistance, alternative funding arrangements, or know somebody who might be able to help, please send me a DM.

If you’d like to support my creative work, you can also watch, subscribe to and share my YouTube channel, Dean Tirkot TV.

I’ve never been particularly comfortable asking for help, but I’m not too proud to do it when I need to.

Thank you for listening.

Dean

#AskingForHelp #FamilyLawAustralia #PTSDawareness #MentalHealthAwareness #AustralianArtist taken in Cloncurry, Queensland by @deantirkot

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a day ago

Birdsville to Camp Nirvana

MIDDLE OF BUM-FUCK NO WHERE.

A few things I saw on the road from Birdsville to Camp Nirvana.

I’ve been looking again at colour photography from the 1960s and 70s and thinking about the palettes, compositions and strange ordinariness of some of that work. I’m not interested in recreating those photographs, but I’ve been playing with some of that language in my own travel diary — faded paint, enormous skies, flooded country, roadside architecture, animals, signs, ruins and the odd things that appear when you’re paying attention.

The camel looked considerably less friendly in person. I was fairly convinced it was going to charge me, so that photograph represents the outer limit of my courage on that particular occasion.

Then there’s me sitting at a stone table in the middle of nowhere, one boot off, sock in my mouth, eating my shoe with a knife and fork.

If you thought the boot was tough, I’m also fucking tough.

I think that’s part of what these photographs are about too. Resilience isn’t necessarily elegant. Sometimes it’s adapting, improvising, fixing the next problem, finding somewhere to sleep, getting up the next morning and continuing to make things.

There are spiders, desert flowers, abandoned buildings, petrol pumps, wrecked cars, water where you don’t expect water, and a camera lens cover that got stuck halfway open and accidentally made a photograph I love.

And eventually, camp.

My home at the moment is essentially constructed from my studio equipment — the Caddy, photographic backdrops, poles, tarps, tables and whatever else I can adapt into something useful. My studio becomes my shelter; my shelter becomes my studio. It looks a little like a cubby house sitting in an enormous landscape.

And I love it. I’m discovering how little I actually need, and these aren’t really photographs of a journey anymore. They’re photographs from inside a life I’m actually living.

More travel diaries, photographs, finished work, field recordings and behind-the-scenes material are on my Patreon. Camp Nirvana Episode 1 is also up on YouTube. Links in bio.

There’s a lot more coming.

Camp Nirvana is really only just beginning. taken in Dajarra Roadhouse & Motel by @deantirkot

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6 days ago

I found Nirvana. 🏜️

I’ve been a little quiet on here for the last few weeks, but I’m fine. More than fine, actually. I’ve been making a lot of work.

I spent eight days alone at a place I started calling Camp Nirvana.

One thing I’ve discovered out here is that being in the bush doesn’t necessarily mean being alone. There are people everywhere. You can drive for hours, think you’ve finally found somewhere completely isolated, and then hear somebody cough in the distance.

Camp Nirvana was different.

No people. No noise. No questions. No feeling watched or having to explain what I was doing. I could finally stop travelling, stop looking for somewhere else, and just exist there and make work.

It became something much bigger than I expected.

This is the new intro I’ve made for the YouTube series — and probably the clearest statement yet of what this whole project is about. 🎥

Episode 3 is the beginning of Camp Nirvana, and the first of a series of episodes from those eight days. There’s a lot coming: photography, self-portraits, still lifes, experiments, mistakes and whatever else happened out there. 📷

I’m currently back in Mount Isa, working through a mountain of material and getting ready to head out and make the next thing.

I still don’t know exactly where any of this is going.

Come along and we’ll find out. 🛣️ taken in Mount Isa, Queensland by @deantirkot

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8 days ago

Dingoes

When I headed back to Sydney a month ago I passed a collection of dingoes hanging by the side of the road. I’d never seen anything like it before, so I stopped and made some photographs.

The first image is the still life that came from that encounter, strange, dark and almost Baroque, bringing together the dingo, native plants, flowers, earth and reflected landscape.

The second is what I found by the side of the road. The third is the country surrounding it.

I’ve now finished my edit of the dingo photographs. The full sequence is up on Patreon. Link in my bio.

The first photograph is also available as a print. DM me if you’re interested.

You can also watch the YouTube episode showing the making of the work. Link in my bio.

Come along. taken in Toompine, Queensland, Australia by @deantirkot

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24 days ago

Just skating ditches.

Found this rough little ditch in Birdsville and had to have a go. Stacked it a couple of times, had fun, and it took me straight back to being care free.

One of the best things about being on the road is getting to stop and skate places I’d normally just drive straight past.

More from the road in my latest YouTube video — link in bio.

Come along. taken in Birdsville, Queensland by @deantirkot

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a month ago

Hey everyone,

A bit of a reinvention.

I’m living out here indefinitely, travelling through remote country, making photographs, meeting people and seeing where the work takes me.

I’ve started a Patreon for The Outback Project, where I’m sharing the travel diaries, photographs, behind-the-scenes stuff and the work as it develops.

The YouTube channel is up and running too. The first episode is now live: dead battery, dead dingoes, photographing what I find out here, and figuring out how to keep moving when things inevitably go wrong.

It’s an experiment, really. In travel, photography, making work and living differently for a while.

I’m doing good. I’m excited about what’s ahead.

Love you all.

First episode on YouTube. Link in bio.

Come along. taken in Great Southern Land by @deantirkot

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a month ago

The journey has begun.

I’m heading deeper into remote Australia to make the body of work I’ve been wanting to create for a long time.

Photography is only one part of it.

I’m recording sound, composing music, making video works, photographing landscapes, building miniature worlds, photographing myself, and photographing whoever—or whatever—I happen to come across.

Out here, everything slows down.

Making tea.
Gathering wood.
Collecting water.
Washing.
Waiting.

I’m celebrating the rituals of everyday life.

I’m surrendering to the process.

I’m becoming more attuned to the landscape, tuning my eye and ear to what’s around me, and allowing the work to reveal itself.

I’ve already slept under the stars, woken up in mist, watched some of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen, and even sat on my little camping toilet beside a river. 😂

They’re simple moments that nobody else will ever experience exactly the way I did. They arrive, they pass, and then they’re gone.

I’m making time to skate too. Trees, rocks, roadside ditches and little bits of landscape that I’d normally drive straight past because I was always trying to get somewhere. Out here, I’m realising the journey is the destination.

I’m still dialling in the van and finding my rhythm. I didn’t realise how physical this way of living would be, but I’m starting to settle into it.

From here I’m heading towards Birdsville, and I hope to be there within the next couple of weeks. If something grabs me along the way, I might stop. You never really know what’s waiting out on the road.

If you’re an artist—or anyone interested in collaborating—and you have the means to get to me, or at least within about a day’s drive of wherever I happen to be, I’d love to hear from you. I’ll be in and out of reception, so replies might take a little while.

Over the coming months I’ll also be sharing behind-the-scenes videos, travel diaries and new work over on Patreon. The photographs from this journey will become part of a new print collection as the project unfolds.

📧 dean@deantirkot.com

🎬 Watch the full film on YouTube. It looks beautiful on a televisi taken in Gundabooka National Park by @deantirkot

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2 months ago