Thornton Dial (1928–2016), Remembering the Road, 1992
Tin, rope carpet, cloth, vinyl, carpet, wire screen, feed sacks, enamel, and Splash Zone compound on canvas on wood, 85 1/2 x 121 x 3 1/2 in.; Private Collection
A scene from the past is frozen in the memory of a tiger made of rusted tin. Silhouetted against a contemporary city, people walk in both directions along a road, each participant touching the next. An elderly woman holds the hand of her son, "the baseball player, trying to go further, his mother whispering 'Go ahead'." In the center is the "hard-headed goat" who "will go anywhere," says Dial, "to the top of the mountain where other animals are afraid." On the left, two young girls are "high-stepping" in unison, emulating the old woman's manner. Dial explains that they are "hard-headed girls following the hard-headed goat. They ain't ashamed and they ain't afraid." The road is an abstract tiger that supports the walkers. Nesting and flying birds, concealed by a white haze, affirm the walkers' eventual success.
