The Town

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    Photo: Dan Jurgens
1987
Welded metal, broken glass, window screen, gravel, wire, concrete, Splash Zone compound, enamel
44.25 x 43 x 39 inches
Collection of
Brooklyn Museum
Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Description

Dial's "town" is a parody of white America. Its neat rows of houses with their innocuous gabled façades hide and disguise the true nature of the inhabitants. Behind the pastel walls is a collection of grotesque caricatures representing the "big folks" who control our population centers, from the smallest communities to the largest cities. They are being watched by a blonde-haired voyeur with blue skin, perched naked with penis erect, on a rooftop, blood pouring from his eye sockets. He has attempted to blind himself out of disgust with what he has observed. Dial's alternate title for theis piece was Nobody See What Really Go On.