My sculpture “Daedalus” was selected for the show “The Eyes Have It” featuring 48 artists exploring the human eye, the animal eye and the digital eye curated by Bartholomew Bland and Laura Deriggi. On view August 31-November 13 at the Lehman College Art Gallery, New York.
“Daedalus”, 2/7, 2012, 44”x27”x9”, aluminium
Dale Dunning – Still Ahead of His Time
Almost twenty years ago for our May 2000 issue of “theHumm” I asked Dale Dunning why he was a sculptor. His answer (see the back of his Trading Card) remains the same today. There is no question that he has achieved his goal of leaving a lasting visual legacy; the good news for art lovers is that Dunning persists in adding to his legacy of sculptures that are “objects of reflection and contemplation.”
Most of his works across the intervening twenty years feature a sculpted metal head - “generic, non-specific, genderless, egg-like in form and intention.” Our interview reminds me that Dunning himself personifies the enigmatic nature of his sculptures. The man is friendly, approachable, learned, generous, quietly humorous - but when he talks about his art, his life, his passion – I realize that his art is self-reflective. He presents himself with the same inexplicable quality that makes his sculptures so intriguing.
Dunning knows well that artists have very little control over the responses their works elicit. Viewers carry different pasts and experiences that shape their perceptions and cause them to project intentions, emotions and meanings onto his blank faces that he could never have anticipated. He is fascinated by studies that prove how malleable memory is. This is how he describes his works in his Artist’s Statement: “I look on them as a mirror that reflects back the observer's experience in new combinations and associations. The works are open-ended with no didactic intent other than to see new possibilities."
Facing Off
That is exactly how he approaches each new piece, and the enjoyment of that exploratory adventure is what motivates and inspires him. His inspiration has taken many forms. New sculptures emerge from happenstance. His brother brought him 80,000 one-inch screws deemed surplus to requirements in Renfrew. The windfall of non-corroding material spawned a stunning collection of heads with fascinating “skins” of intricately patterned metalwork. He welds bronze rods together, and stainless-steel bolts – he unearthed 300 pounds of them at Ed’s Salvage on Dwyer Hill Rd. He has used old metal type welded together and cast in bronze in a beautiful piece eponymously titled Calligraphy, reflecting how inextricably involved humankind is with language and symbols.
Dunning loves the process of creating and he loves a challenge. The possibilities are endless; one experiment leads to the next. He revels in the knowledge that he doesn’t know exactly what a sculpture will look like until he finishes it. Years ago, when he needed industrial strength aircraft cable to lift a heavy steel table, he asked Almonte’s Ron Caron for help. Today Dale is still lacerating his fingertips by incorporating chunks of the 500-foot steel cable he received into current works. Painstakingly unraveled, the cable frames a face in an original and striking fashion.
When I insist, as always, that the photo on his Artist Trading Card be taken by “theHumm,” Dale offers to let me preview the stunning, nine-foot, unnamed head sculpture he is working on in his foundry. Scheduled for exhibit this spring in the Sculpture Garden at Oeno Gallery located on Huff Estates Winery in Prince Edward County, this piece is destined for fame as a showpiece in some appropriate venue. Oeno Gallery sells all over the world, and I can’t wait to hear which fabulously wealthy client or, better yet, world-famous site acquires it. In a perfect world a recording device would capture by-passers’ reactions and the data would reveal fascinating insights into the human psyche. Talk about a Tabula Rasa!
Okay. Tabula Rasa is the name of one of my favourite Dunning pieces. I won’t bore you with my interpretation of what it “means,” but the smooth, gold-patinated head bursting through the textured bronze shell surrounding it triggers a myriad of responses. In a video on his Oeno Gallery website, Dunning says, “The thing I like about the head is it sort of encompasses what we are. We live in our heads…I use the head as a container to suggest what’s percolating underneath.”
Proud to be a Millian
Born in Ottawa, Dunning earned his MFA Degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. While earning his BFA from Mt. Alison University, he studied under Lawren P. Harris (son of Group of Seven member Lawren S. Harris) who encouraged him to pursue his career as an artist. After a teaching stint in Toronto that consumed too much of his time, 47 years ago Dale and his wife Elizabeth bought their current home and farmland located ten minutes from Almonte. Dale likes the idea of self imposed limits and believes that their decision to forego a hectic urban life and its distractions is consonant with his continued concentration on the human head as the vehicle for his sculpture. Focus is not a limitation when you possess an excess of creativity.
Rural roots certainly haven’t constrained his continued growth as a notable Canadian sculptor. In 2012 his work was chosen to illustrate an entire volume of Dacritics, a journal of linguistic criticism published by Johns Hopkins University Press. He has exhibited across Canada and his work is held in private, corporate and public collections including the Musée des Beaux Arts in Montreal, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, McIntosh Gallery at Western University, Carleton University Art Collection, the Canada Council Art Bank, and the National Library of Canada”. He has exhibited in many solo and group shows including in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and New York, and is the recipient of awards from the Canada Council and the Town of Mississippi Mills.
Dunning is represented in many fine galleries and is a fixture at Almonte’s lovely Sivarulrasa Gallery. "Dale Dunning is an exceptionally versatile artist" notes curator Sanjeev Sivarulrasa. "He has mastered techniques in bronze, aluminum, steel, and glass over four decades of relentless creativity." That’s not all. Dunning is a great photographer too, and consistent in his artistic vision. In our September 2015, issue, I wrote this about Dale’s participation in the 5iz Photographic Collective: “Characteristically, possible interpretations of his new art images are abundant, and indeterminate.” If you don’t like being told what to think, Dale Dunning’s art is for you. It is also incredibly beautiful and magnificently wrought.
Mayor Jim Watson and I share an amusing thought at the silent auction in the new Ottawa Art Gallery.
My work is now represented by Galerie Blanche on rue Saint Paul Ouest in Old Montreal. I look forward to working with Lyne Parent, Michel-Jean Correia and Catherine Trembley.
Oeno Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of the inspired cast bronze, steel and aluminum sculptures by Canadian artist Dale Dunning. Using the head as a metaphor for human experience, Dunning’s work reflects a romantic sensibility that recalls the Gothic literature of Mary Shelley or the poetic drama of Greek mythology.
At the vernisage.
In this show I have some new pieces and several older works dating back to 1979. I'm showing with the Toronto sculptor Jim Hake.
I am currently in the group show "Eclipse" with Deborah Arnold, Susan Low-Beer, Marina Malvada, and Sanjeev Sivarulrasa. This show, inspired by the upcoming Eclipse of the sun, explores not only the astronomical context of eclipse but also other connotations of the word .
photo by Raymond Dubois
I'm pleased to announce that "Gyptian" 2/7 has been added to the City of Ottawa Art Collection through the Direct Purchase Program.
"Gyptian" 2/7, steel, 40" high, 2016.
A solo exhibition, March 11 – April 17, 2016
Dale Dunning: Unravelling, a solo exhibition, March 11 – April 17, 2016
Curated by: Sanjeev Sivarulrasa
Unravelling… the title of this show suggests many things: the physical transformation of raw materials into something beautiful in the hands of an exceptionally gifted artist; the unravelling of our bodies and minds as we age and mature; the untangling of the mysteries of the human condition – an exploration that art celebrates. In Unravelling, Sivarulrasa Gallery presents 23 fascinating works in bronze, aluminum, steel, and glass by sculptor Dale Dunning, spanning four decades of relentless creativity – including several new works that are being exhibited for the first time. The exhibition showcases Dunning’s remarkable versatility, his mastery of technique, and his intriguing vision.
What a lovely surprise. This video is so skillfully shot, lit and edited by Michel Lafreniere and Johanne Couture's playing of Couperin's Les Barricades mysterieuse fits so well with the sculpture. I'm blown away! Thank you La Fabrique Culturaelle.TV
Peter Simpson - The Big Beat More from Peter Simpson - The Big Beat
Published on: April 3, 2015
Last Updated: April 3, 2015 12:29 PM EDT
And now, a suggestion for an afternoon road trip to two provinces to see two art exhibits by two members of one family.
Dale Dunning has the exhibition Personae, at the Espace Pierre Debain in Aylmer, while Annie Dunning, his daughter, has Sapsucker Sounds at Gallery 101 in Ottawa. On the surface the shows are very different, but a closer look reveals how both artists have turned ordinary objects into artworks that are anything but ordinary.
Gallery 101 is an unforgiving space for an art show. It’s in a garage that sits in the shadow of the Queensway. Hints of spring have turned the driveway to mud, which a visitor cannot avoid while navigating between the neighbouring businesses’ pick-up trucks. (When I opened the gallery door to leave I banged the back of a pickup.) Inside, the gallery space is industrial bland, all concrete and exposed piping, with a forced-air heating system that is loud, oppressively windy and difficult to avoid, like Tom Mulcair during Question Period.
All of which makes it more impressive that Annie Dunning has managed to establish in the space a sense of being in a forest glade. In Sapsucker Sounds, Annie has used a few pieces of wood and metal, seasoned with sound and light, to create an atmosphere that is reflective and surprisingly calming. It all began, the artist’s notes say, “with a found log, filled with holes made by a yellow-bellied sapsucker.
Woodpeckers hammer their heads into trees to both find food and mark their territory, and — this part was news to me — they sometimes hammer on metal road signs, “taking advantage of the amplification” that results. It’s this “inter-species cultural influence” that interests Annie.
It’s not a large show, only a half-dozen or so pieces, but they are bound by theme and imagination and work together to affect the viewer. One piece, Record, is a small, rustic turntable that spins a brass disc that in turn is read by a sensor. The sensor transmits the signal to a device overhead that fires small hammers into a short log, producing the recognizable sound of a woodpecker pecking. But that’s not all: the sensor also reacts to the propinquity of the viewer, and sometimes produces the same pecking on a metal sign positioned 20 or so feet away (and covered in a painting of a woodpecker on a tree).
I tried to figure how the sensor was reacting to my movements, but it was elusive and I couldn’t quite see the answer. It was a lot like trying to get a good look at an actual woodpecker but having it hop around to the other side of the tree.
Another piece, Music Box, produces a woodpecker sound, but only if the viewer turns a crank. Next to it is a pile of firewood, topped by a video projection of woodpecker at work. Then there’s a pile of metal “logs” that are lighted from the inside, so the light streams out through a pattern of holes left behind by a woodpecker.
There’s more, and every piece helps to create the feeling of being out there, among the trees, in the presence of an industrious and impressive bird. This is a great exhibition for children, as it’s interactive and entertaining. But more than that, it is transformative, as it takes you from a bland space and transports you to someplace wild and enchanted.
A bust made of bolts, by Dale Dunning at Espace Pierre-Debain in Gatineau.
Over at Espace Pierre-Debain in Aylmer, Dale Dunning’s work looks to another sort of enchantment, one that is darker, and more introspective. Personae is built around a series of large, metal masks and busts, each inspired by mythology and history, and made of repurposed materials.
There are bronze masks, in which Dale has turned familiar patterns of decorative wrought metal into enigmatic faces. Another mask has a vague human face fashioned entirely from individual letters made of aluminum type, as would be used on a press — hence the mask’s title, Palimpsest, a thing to be written on over again and again. A mask titled Prometheus is made of larger bronze letters, all welded together and with a few stray ends sticking out the back, which made me think of Medusa and her coiffure of snakes. Another, titled the Ineluctable Dream, is, as its name suggests, impossible to ignore, with large wings for eyes.
Other busts are made entirely of small bolts, thousands of them welded together and pointed outward, creating considerable depth and unique texture. How endless and meticulous the manufacture of these masks must have been. Dale Dunning creates that rare sort of art in which the process of creating it impresses almost as much as the end result.
Detail of Palimpsest, by Dale Dunning. (Photo courtesy the artist)
The images are numbered in the bottom right corner so you can match them up with the list below.
1. Installation shot
2. Installation shot
3. Installation shot
4. Installation shot
5. "Anemone", 29" x 18" x 9", steel, #12130, $12,500
6. "
7. "
8. "Soritical Head", 14"x8"x15", steel bolts, #15100, $9,500
9. "
10. "Fibonacci Dream", 17”x14”x9”, steel, #12001, $9,500
11. "
12. "
13. "
14. "Sorites Fetish", 33.5”x19”x12”, steel bolts, #11102, $19,500
15. "
16. "Ineluctable Dream", 45"x30"x11", bronze, #12200, $19,500
17. "
18. "Palimpsest", 3/7, 27”x18”x9”, aluminium, #10320, $9,500
19. "
20. "
21. "
22 . "Prometheus", 20”x16”x12”, bronze, #10100, $12,500
23. "
24. "Green Samurai", AP, 18"x14"x9", bronze, #14020, $7,500
25. "
26. "Midori Koi", AP, 28"x18"x9", bronze, #14000, $9,500
27. "
28. "
29. "Akai Koi", AP, 26"x17"x8", bronze, #14010, $9,500
30. "
31. "Snakes & Letters",1/1, 29"x19"x11", aluminium, #15000, $10,500
32. "
33. "
This is a video posted on Vimeo of my show in Aylmer at Espace Pierre Debain. The show runs to the 19th of April.
A couple of shots of my sculpture in the Oeno Gallery booth at the Interior Design Show last weekend in Toronto. Dana Charles is showing the same sculpture featured in "Light Fantastic", the Annual Interiors Edition 2015 of Ottawa Magazine.
This is the official invitation for my show at Espace Pierre Debain, in Aylmer, about 45 minutes from Almonte and 30 minutes from Ottawa. The opening is next Wednesday the 11th from 6:00 to 8:00. The show will run from the 11th of March to the 19th of April 2015. The gallery hours are 1:00 to 8:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 4:00 Saturday and Sunday. For more on the show click here, and to learn more about the gallery check them out on Facebook.
I will be present at the opening.
I will be showing a selection of my sculpture and digital images at Wallack Galleries in Ottawa.
The show starts Saturday, November 29 and I will be present on that day from 2:00 to 5:00.
I am introducing a new series called "Koi" which is Japanese for love. The works are cast bronze about 30 inches high and to my eye they have a Japanese quality to them though the elements that form the sculptures are taken from Victorian ornamental details for furniture.
Dale Dunning and new sculpture in bronze .
Icarus 39”x27”x9” aluminium
The amazing quality of metal lies in its ability of melting and modeling. Somehow metal is a “backstage support” material due to its concrete hue, weight and functionality. Yet it is bestowed with diverse possibilities of interpretations when applied in surface design.
The physical tactility of metal and the processes involved in making a sculpture are what fascinate the artist. For more than ten years he has been exploring the reciprocity between open ended imagination and the defined structures of design and symbol exemplified in type. Sculpture & Type is a series of sculptures about reflection and contemplation. The head is generic, non-specific, genderless, and egg-like in form and intention. The artist looks his sculpture as a mirror which reflects back the observer’s experience in new combinations and associations. The works are open ended with no didactic intent other than to see new possibilities.
BranD is an International Commercial Cross-communication Design Bimonthly
