“art schools kill art”, 1985 **
Dee Ai Wai (1953 – 2008)
courtesy of Vassilis Vlastaras

Dee Ai Wai was from South Korea. We met in Athens, in ASFA, fellow students in the mid-1980s. In 1985 Dee took part in ASFA's competition for the graphic design of a book for students. He failed.
A few days after the results, he handed me the mock-ups of the contest as a memento and departed for his homeland. He never got his degree. He traveled to America and China where he excelled as an artist. He was drowned in a lake in his homeland during his favorite hobby, fishing.

The work belongs to the collection of Vassilis Vlastaras.

“The Autolligence”, 1999 **
Dee Ai Wai (1953 – 2008)
courtesy of Vassilis Vlastaras

Vassilis Vlastaras presents the second part* of the documents of Dee Ai Wai’s life. Vlastaras was Dee Ai Wai’s art school classmate in ASFA in the mid 80s and is the inheritor of his work and personal archive. In 1985, Dee took part in ASFA's competition for the graphic design of the student guide. He failed.
A few days after the results, he handed him the mock-ups of the contest as a memento and departed for his homeland. He never got his degree. He traveled to America where he met Hsu Feng Hsiung an engineer from Taiwan who worked in IBM and was a member of Deep Blue team, which constructed the computer that was programed to play chess with humans. At the end of 1999, Hsu while was completing his book on his experience with Deep Blue asked Dee to design the book cover. Finally, Hsu rejected Dee’s designs.

Dee Ai Wy was from South Korea.

*The first part was presented in the exhibition Frozen Education in Basel, Switzerland, in October 2018.

The works and documentations belongs to the collection of Vassilis Vlastaras.