Daniel Hayes Uppendahl
Was born in Southern Rhodesia, a British colony (now Zimbabwe). His early life and education included colonial boarding school. When Zimbabwe was granted independence from the UK in 1970 his family moved to the US.
He continued his education in the US, studying art and philosophy at university, culminating in an MA in Aesthetics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Never at home in the US, he went abroad after university.
In the mid-1990’s, Daniel returned for a few years and worked in a live-in loft studio in downtown LA to produce the work seen on this website. The 90’s Downtown LA art scene was a hotspot for cutting-edge work with many young artists struggling to establish a career. His neighbors were a mixture of established artists such as George Herms with famous actors like Dennis Hopper showing up at his parties. His loft building was an eclectic mix representation of the time with a dungeon where dominatrixes worked, a porn star living in the basement, and the punk kids running illegal raves. All of them became friends and some became models for these photo shoots. This collection is not only art, it is also a document of the downtown LA art scene that no longer exists. Downtown LA has gentrified, there are now few artists, lawyers live in the lofts, and the sidewalks where homeless people wandered now have cafes and chic restaurants.
This work was photographed on film in large format cameras and archivally hand printed in the darkroom. Both technically and socially it is a record of a period that has passed. And the work itself attracted critical attention. It was included in shows at venues such as the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, and was represented by G Ray Hawkins Gallery in Santa Monica.
A great adventure for Daniel, he once again began feeling uncomfortable in the US and in 2000, moved to India. Currently he owns and stewards a small organic farm in Hawai’i.
Artist statements accompany each collection. Generally this body of work served to explore what Carl Jung would call the “shadow realm”, the parts of our psyche that are generally held unconsciously and often difficult to confront. Due to the inherent challenging nature of the content, it was presented in a classical light and composition to elevate the viewers’ perception and allow them an easier time of navigating the potentially difficult content with as much peaceful beauty as possible.