Deke Weaver

Deke Weaver is a writer-performer, designer, and video/media artist. He graduated from Bowdoin College and earned an M.F.A. in photography from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  His interdisciplinary performances and videos have been presented throughout the U.S. and abroad in experimental theater, film/video, dance, solo performance, and broadcast venues such as PBS, Channel 4/U.K., Showtime, New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, Berlin Video Festival, MoMA/NY, Museum of Contemporary Art/LA, Judson Memorial Church, Tonic, Dixon Place, HERE, P.S. 122, The Moth, Roulette, Galapagos, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and many others, including livestock pavilions, national parks, nightclubs, bars, backyard sheds, and living rooms. A resident artist at Yaddo, Isle Royale National Park, and HERE, a two-time resident at Ucross, a four-time fellow at the MacDowell Colony, and a three-time recipient of NEA regional film/video grants, he has been awarded commissions, fellowships, and grants from Creative Capital, the city of San Francisco, the states of New York and Illinois, the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and other public and private foundations. His work in San Francisco included collaborations with Jayne Wenger and Jim Cave;  in New York,  with Michael Farkas and Jill Samuels.

His lifelong project, The Unreliable Bestiary, is presenting a performance for every letter of the alphabet, each letter represented by an endangered animal. Among the collaborators for The Bestiary are Jennifer Allen, Chris Peck, and Valerie Oliveiro.  The text for the first and second performances in the series, Monkey and Elephant, are included in the University of Michigan Press publication Animal Acts: Performing Species Today (edited by Holly Hughes and Una Chaudhuri). Elephant was presented at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.  The third performance, Wolf, premiered in September 2013.

Weaver is currently an associate professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with appointments in the School of Art and Design’s New Media Program and the Department of Theater.