Michael Dennis (1942- )

May 24

Sculpting the Shadows of Ancestors

I try to capture the essence of human gesture from a tree
using only the minimum definition required That in one piece the viewer may see
both human form
and form of tree
We do not need details of feature to respond Consider the essence of the female form
the mother we know
the lover we seek
How few lines it takes to see her

If we could look far back in time, we can imagine our ancestors. They were much like us, although without the niceties which now overwhelm us. They laughed and cried, sang and danced, told stories, fought and loved. They lived and died, surrounded by animals. As they warmed themselves by their fires, the shadows of their lives were cast on the walls. I try now to sculpt those shadows.

The way we remember ourselves is foremost visual, paintings in caves, actors on screens. I try to create the likeness of the human form stripped to its bare essentials, at its most elemental, without details of feature, like a shadow. How few lines to signify as human a being. What cues to recognize another, potential mate or competitor. I would probe some old neural archive where primal images dwell, speak an elemental visual tongue of our elemental form. What wonder that I need only slightly change a line to imply gender, or motion. And with that implication of motion to imply time. With just one inflection of a line to show time, that’s fine.

Michael Dennis has lived on Denman Island for 30 years, carving monumental figures in salvaged cedar. Abstract and semi-representational, they have power, presence, and personality and demonstrate Dennis’s intimate mastery of the human form.

Originally from California, a professor and neurophysiological research scientist at University of California, Berkeley, Michael made a dramatic shift in the ’80s, from the academy of science to the practice of art, to making of “representations of self” and ancestral metaphors. His work is in prominent collections in Canada and abroad. His carved figures are familiar in Vancouver with public installations at SFU, UBC and ”Dude Chilling Park”.

https://michaeldenn.is

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