Born: Canterbury, Kent, 1965

Tacita Dean suggests and investigates connections between past and present, fiction and reality. The starting point for her work is typically a chance encounter - the film Bubble House being a case in point. Dean came across the futuristic ruin while visiting Cayman Brac in the Caribbean to film the yachtsman Donald Crowhurst's wrecked trimaran, Teignmouth Electron. He disappeared at sea while participating in a solo, non-stop round-the-world race. Realising that he could not complete the race, Crowhurst concealed his real position and his trimaran was found abandoned in the Atlantic.

Curious about the deserted structure, she discovered that the 'bubble house' was built by a Frenchman. 'It was a vision for perfect hurricane housing, egg-shaped and resistant to the wind . . .'. The Frenchman, however, was arrested for embezzling money before the house was completed. Dean sees connections between the house and the trimaran: both point to the frailty of human endeavour against the forces of nature.