Leaving and Waving

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Deanna Dikeman, "Leaving and Waving, 7-1991" (courtesy the artist)

For 27 years, starting in 1991 when she was in her 30s, Deanna Dikeman visited her parents in Sioux City, Iowa. Each time, as she drove away, she photographed them waving goodbye from the front yard of their cherry-red suburban rancher. 

Although Dikeman was working on a larger project, Relative Moments, that documents the dynamics of her extended family, she eventually realized this subset of colour and black-and-white images had the makings of a show. She assembled them into Leaving and Waving, an emotionally powerful exhibition on view at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver until April 16.

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Deanna Dikeman, "Leaving and Waving, 6-2005" (courtesy the artist)

It’s easy to connect with the sadness-tinged love that’s evoked in these images. I made similar semi-annual trips to my parents’ rancher in Spokane, Washington, over the same time span, visits that also ended with waves from the driveway. 

The appeal of the work (which was featured in The New Yorker and named one of its top 25 stories of 2020) rests partly in the familiarity of its setting, at least for those from middle-class suburbia. But its themes – familial bonds and the passage of time – are universal. 

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Deanna Dikeman, "Leaving and Waving," 2023, installation view at Polygon Gallery (photo by Dennis Ha)

The images, printed at roughly the size of a sheet of loose-leaf paper, are placed close together in chronological order along a thin ledge on the gallery wall. The simple narrative structure is compelling. As the seasons shift, again and again, Dikeman’s parents become frailer and more stooped. Her father, glasses case clipped into the breast pocket of his shirt, begins to use a cane. Her son grows from a baby in the back seat to a young man. 

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Deanna Dikeman, "Leaving and Waving," 2023, detail of installation at Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver (photo by Dennis Ha)

The images can be repetitive, often showing her parents in similar poses, but there are variations too.  Sometimes her mother leans into the car window, as if to share some parting words. In later images, she becomes a steadying presence for her husband. 

When her father died in 2009, Dikeman continued photographing her mother, even after she moved into an assisted-living apartment in 2017, where she died later that year. After the funeral, Dikeman returned to the house for a final shot. This time, no one waves goodbye.

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Deanna Dikeman, "Leaving and Waving, 6-2015" (courtesy the artist)

What transpired during Dikeman’s visits? She gives no clues, allowing viewers to project their own stories. I found myself reading subtle shifts in facial expressions, trying to reach back in time, both Dikeman’s and my own, wishing I’d done a similar project with my parents. 

Leaving and Waving stands apart from the Polygon’s usual conceptual fare. While the images can conjure sentimentality and nostalgia, they also address, in simple and affecting ways, the transience of our journey through life. ■

Deanna Dikeman: Leaving and Waving at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver from Jan. 19 to April 23, 2023.

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