For his 2016 Turner Prize exhibition, Michael Dean presented Sic Glyphs, a combination of works from his nominated exhibitions at South London Gallery and de Appel, Amsterdam.
Dean starts his process with writing, which he then gives a physical form. He creates moulds and casts of his words, abstracting them into an alphabet of human-scale shapes using everyday materials such as concrete, soil, sand, and corrugated sheet metal.
His sculpture (United Kingdom poverty line for two adults and two children: twenty thousand four hundred and thirty six pounds sterling as published on 1st September 2016) consists of £20,436 in pennies. When installing the work Dean removed one coin, so that the money you see represents one penny below the UK poverty line for a family of four.
