In conversation with
Dijon Dajee

Dijon Dajee was born and raised in London. With an Indian, British and New Zealand heritage his work is similarly international, spanning influences from all areas of the globe. Gaining his Master’s degree in Philosophy, Dijon's early work is informed by academic aesthetics, often using The British Journal of Aesthetics as a primary source material.

Artiq You taught yourself how to paint while pursuing your Master’s degree in Philosophy. How has your academic background in Aesthetics and Philosophy informed your artistic practice?

Dijon In creating my works, I do think very deeply (perhaps too deeply) about the meaning of art in general and how that can inform my practice. An interesting concept that I have always returned to is the concept in Neitzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy”, that artworks constantly play between what he calls the Apollonian – the structured, well ordered aspects of the artwork and the Dionysian – the free-flowing and disordered. All artworks contain this juxtaposition and it is the resonance between these two concepts which ultimately make artworks visually interesting.

Artiq Your work explores complex ideas while maintaining a deep interest in the physicality of the artwork itself. Can you tell us a bit more about how these parallel researches support each other, in particular in your series B2FH?

Dijon In B2FH I was really looking at a complex idea. The series is named after an astro-physics paper who’s authors Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler and Hoyle came up with the idea of stellar nucleosynthesis which is the idea that all the periodic table elements were all born in the fusion of stars like our sun. At the time, I was working with LED lights and playing with the scintillating effects that were produced as a result of shining the lights through the pinpricks in paper (mostly, but I also did these works on canvas, metal and wood).

Scintillation, which is the twinkling of stars, happens as a result of atmosphere changes between your eye and the light source and the same idea that I was playing with using LEDs was also going on in stars. I liked the idea that this microscopic process, of painstakingly pin-pricking a surface, was able to represent an idea that was as vast as planets, suns and even other universes. In many ways, astro-physics is dealing with this idea a lot.

They may be talking about super-massive objects, but they are only really dealing with the processes of microscopic particles. I went a number of times to Olafur Eliasson, 2003 Tate Commission “The Weather Project” where he used humidifiers to create a mist in the air whilst creating a massive sun out of lamps and had mirrors on the ceiling. Reflecting on these ideas many years later definitely influenced my thinking in making the B2FH series.

Artiq You started painting to create a meditative space for yourself. Does painting still offer you that, and is meditation part of the creative process?

Dijon I did start painting as a counterbalance to studying philosophy. I often feel like there is something missing in philosophy which is very logical and theory-based discipline, so the idea of doing something practical really appealed to me. I was influenced by the ideas of Richard Shusterman who wrote a book called “Pragmatist Aesthetics” which connects various Yoga, Pilates and acting techniques to philosophical practice and explores the way in which they can be unified.

I just thought that the best way to bring both of these ideas together was through art. If I’m actually in the process of making I don’t find that I actually meditate so much as I find it’s basically part of the process, it’s only when I’m in a period between projects that I will find I need meditation to focus me.

Artiq Working with ink on paper imposes restrictions on the creative process. Could you expand on the experience of working with this technique for the series Shino?

Dijon Working with ink on paper is very restrictive in that you have to get it right the first time or it’s over. Which meant that when I was doing the works in the Shino series, many of which were made from stretched paper on canvas frames, if I didn’t get it right it would mean the choice of losing quite a few hours prep work. This meant that my mindset had to shift and I leaned far more into a Wabi-Sabi aesthetic, utilising the rustic beauty of the pieces and retaining any mistakes that were made on the page. In many ways it made me appreciate what I had and to know that it is ok to stop trying to perfect everything.

Artiq As a philosopher and artist, what is the most stimulating aspect of the intersection between philosophy and visual art?

Dijon One of the problems with philosophy is that it is rigorous and methodical, especially the analytic aesthetics that I was studying. Doing something that is practical and repetitive, which art often is, can focus your mind on something that is totally distinct from the idea or concept that you are trying to get to grips with.

For many years it felt as if philosophy was seen as an old tradition which had no relevance in the world, but I slowly see this changing. With technology outpacing our ability to understand it, philosophy is actually helping us make sense of the future and is allowing us to focus on the things we actually value.

In many ways this is also the project of art, for example in the noticing the way a particular yellow flower may contain a hint of blue and red when you look at it in closer detail. It’s about re-evaluating and appreciating the details of the things we see.

Artiq Your art is so knowledgeable, enriched by complex philosophical concepts. How do you convey them through a minimalist style? 

Dijon I’m not sure I do, to be honest - I hope to but that is something that the audience can only really decide. Sometimes when you put less down on the canvas there is more room for the audience to be able to think about the artistic intentions. I also think that artworks are always just a signpost that draw you in to a deeper investigation of an idea, whether that be the life of a painter, the history/era of the painting, an idea in image making etc.

I have a lot of information about my pieces on my website and so I hope that if people are intrigued, they will seek to look further into them. If not, I am happy with that too. There is far too much art in the world for me to tell people what they should and shouldn’t respond to.

Artiq Are you currently working on something new? Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to share?

Dijon Yes, I am working on something new that I’m really excited about but I’m not sure who or where the right place for it is. In August last year my daughter was born and at the same time a whole host of AI products came on to the market. With the inevitable anxiety one feels about having these forms of AI programmes in the creative space and how this will change the future, it got me thinking about all the different paths that a life can go in from the point of birth.

As a result, I came up with this idea about trying to paint the portraits of future humans which I am calling “Foreshadows”. These portraits will start off using pictures of my daughter and then use AI to digitally age and stylise them to create ghosts of potential people that I will finally paint in oil.