Dale Dunning —Still Ahead of His Time - theHumm January 2020

Dale Dunning —Still Ahead of His Time - theHumm January 2020

By Sally Hansen

Art… and Soul

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 humourous — 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 Road. He has used old metal type welded together and cast in bronze in a beautiful piece entitled 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. The back of his Trading Card provides many links to additional information and images.

Links for this article at Dale Dunning,