CV

Don Hải Phú Daedalus (b. 1983) grew up in the shadow of the country's largest public observatory—an area so remote and sparsely populated that it served as the first plutonium-processing plant for the Manhattan Project. Shortly after the oldest human remains in North America were discovered near his hometown, Daedalus left to attend the University of Washington, where, coincidentally, the remains were to be held during the decade-long legal dispute between the Kennewick tribe and anthropologists. During that debate, he completed studies in Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Visual Arts.

In the post-911 climate that re-elected George W. Bush, Daedalus voluntarily ex-patriated to Spain, where the housing bubble was ripening. Living in Barcelona, he studied Ildefons Cerdà's l'Eixample through painting, and drawing. Don returned to the U.S. to complete his graduate studies at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he focused on new media, film and performance.

In New York, Daedalus was commission by Franklin Furnace to create Doppelgänger Effect, (2010/2011) which merged his interest in sight, urbanism, and sound. In 2012 he staged Doppler Shift, commissioned by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as a the continuation of the inquiries of Doppelgänger Effect. Concomitantly, he participated in Sound Development City's first expeditionary residency in Berlin, London, and Zurich, in which he presented Bottle Vox. Returning to New York, he joined Critical Practices, Inc., founded by the first generation Conceptual artist and art critic, Saul Ostrow.

In the fall of 2012, Don founded Lugubrious New York, a digital artist book publishing platform later that year. The first publication was with British artist Steve Rosenthal.

In 2013 Daedalus held his first solo show in Latin America at LA Galeria in Bogotá, Colombia, entitled Imagined Bonds, Impossible Escape. He created glass sculptures for the exhibition, each capturing a stage in the evolution of the representation of black holes. The sculptures were made while in residence at Campos de Gutierrez, in MedellÍn, the former home to the notorious Pablo Escobar. Recursive Archeology (2023) was second solo exhibition at the gallery.

A scholarship and residency at The Center for Book Arts brought Daedalus back to the U.S., where he presented bookEnd, a sculptural and digital meditation on the transference of information formats in the consumer economy. His 2014 work The Digtiization Of Information And Its Physical Components, led to a panel discussion on archival practices with D. Graham Burnett, Matt Wolf, Lyle Shaw, and Emilio Chapela.

The 2014 Whitney Biennial invited Critical Practices, Inc., to facilitate three round table discussions for the Whitney Biennial. Later that year Daedalus curated three discussions at First Street Green park, concerning public space. In 2016 he transitioned to archiving consultant for CPI. 

In 2015, Daedalus presented Acquisition Prototype #1.2 at the Bronx Biennial held at the Bronx Museum of Arts. Acquisition Prototype #2.1 launched at the Redneck Fishing Tournament in Bath, IL, in 2016. Acquisition Prototype #3.1 is permanently installed at a community pond in Củ Chi, Việt Nam.

Additionally, Don has been a resident at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), Triangle Arts, Institute for Electronic Arts (Alfred University), the Betsy Ross Hotel in Miami Beach, Schaumbad Freies Atelierhaus, Flux Factory and Campos de Gutierrez. He has received support from New York Foundation for the Arts, Rhizome, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Franklin Furnace, the Puffin Foundation, En Foco, and participated in the Buckminster Fuller Institute's Catalyst program and was a finalist for Katerva’s Environmental Innovation award.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is an excavation of the overlooked and marginalized, a reexamination of our collective history and material culture. I employ sculpture, book arts, and video to illuminate hidden narratives and challenge conventional perspectives. By recontextualizing the detritus of human society, I aim to shift our perception of the world around us. My practice is rooted in a fascination with the interplay between the natural world and human intervention, exploring how these forces shape our experiences and identities. Through my work, I seek to foster a deeper engagement with the complexities of our shared past and present, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship to the world.