suzy the crackhead Photograph

Michael Dent has been a brash and bristling voice in popular culture since the late 1970s. He got his start at Toronto's and Canada's first punk club, the Crash 'N Burn, as the drummer for The Dents, in 1977. Following that, he booked bands for the culturally iconic, but long-gone, Beverley Tavern from 1985 to 1987, giving such bands as Cowboy Junkies their first gigs. As a sound tech, he went on to work with such musical innovators as Nash the Slash and Art Bergmann. ln 1992,Dent returned to the stage as a spoken word artist, a forum he continues to use to this day to relentlessly question his own, and our culture's, shadow sides. That same year, intrigued by the visiting industrial circus Archaos, Dent found his way into the tutelage of the company's firebreathing master Pascalito Vuonet, and performed for them under the big top. Soon after, he showcased these firebreathing skills in a succession of music videos, all made in 1993, for the bands The Headstones (1/'s All Over), directed by Bruce MacDonald; 13 Engines (Smoke and Ashes), directed by Floria Sigismondi; and for Death and Horror Incorporated (New Vision), directed by D.H.I. During this prolific period, Dent explored the visual arts, using collage, found objects and sheet metal as media. His debut as an exhibiting artist was at Toronto's now defunct Idee Gallery in 1993 as part of a group show. One of his sheet metal pieces from that time still hangs behind the bar in the Bovine Sex Club today. A disastrous love affair and the suicide of his brother were Dent's impetus to journey down the darkest alleys of our culture as a Vancouver-based heroin addict between 1994 and 1998. Some of these experiences are chronicled in his books of poetry, Die With Me and Pearls Before Swine. Both were self-published shortly before he left for the west coast. His poems have also been published in numerous magazines both here and in Europe. Upon emerging from this underworld, Dent met multimedia artist Karl Spreitz, who lent him his first camera in Victoria, and became his photo mentor. Dent began producing short videos and exploring photography as a means to question his experience and to document the fragility, pathos, and moments of stubborn survival and transcendence in our world. In2009, Dent's was one of 60 photos chosen from2067 submissions to Toronto's Contact Photography Festival competition.