Looking for The Signs

Dial had a long career as a railroad welder for the Pullman Standard Company before he turned to art. His first works developed around metal frames as he used his knowledge of steelworking for new purpose. Even as Dial’s art evolved to wall-mounted constructions incorporating found materials from his community of Bessemer, he maintained the aesthetic of twisted metal in his art. The layered wood and other materials in this work evoke the structure and strength of his earlier armatures.
This work includes a small tiger, fashioned from metal scraps, dwarfed by the scale of the larger composition. For Dial, the tiger was a form of self-portrait and a symbol of the struggle of Black men in America. The diminuative scale of this tiger suggests it is being overpowered by a larger force or lost in the busy narrative of the piece. With this, Dial perhaps illustrates the oppression felt by Black men in the narratives around them.