White Room: David Dunlap

Last year, at the closing party for the PERFORMA 05 festival, I ran into the artist Michael Smith. For reasons that are no longer clear Michael mentioned the work of his friend David Dunlap. Michael’s enthusiasm for David’s work – which I was unaware of – was generous, infectious, and – ultimately – recommendation enough. Later that evening I suggested that Michael might ‘present’ his friend’s work in New York at White Columns in our project space. Michael agreed, and also agreed to write a short introductory text about his relationship with both David and his work. White Columns is honored to host David’s work, and sincerely grateful to both David and Michael for their enthusiasm about this project. – Matthew Higgs, Director, White Columns.

(What follows is an extract from Michael Smith’s text, the full version of which will be available from the gallery.)

“David Dunlap sees his life as a story and for as long as I have known him he has been keeping track of his life and what passes in front of him with notebooks filled with drawings, words, lists, photos, dreams and sketches. He has hundreds of these books. He numbers them to keep track of time, as a way to archive material and as something to look back on for reassurance to remind himself that something has been accomplished. These books are the raw material for all of his projects. … David is constantly rearranging parts of his story … He is the attendant who mixes, matches and repackages the photos, dreams, words and sketches of a continuous story with the ever changing beginning and an inevitable end. His story evolves daily, changing its form and forum as it makes its way onto sandwich boards, uniforms, towers, buildings and emails. David is the guy who keeps it all moving along while trying to make sense of all of the other pieces, parts and stories out there.” – Michael Smith.
“IF YOUR STORY IS MORE INTERESTING THAN YOUR OBJECT, THEN YOUR STORY IS YOUR OBJECT.” – David Dunlap

At White Columns David Dunlap will present a multi-media environment that includes a partial recreation of a tower- like structure that was originally built – to a height of nearly 50′ – in the artist’s Iowa garden (which eventually had to be dismantled due to the fact that it failed to meet required building codes.). Dunlap’s installation will be augmented by numerous drawings and sculptural objects.

David Dunlap lives and works in Iowa. Dunlap received a B.A. degree from Colorado College (1962) and both B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from Yale University (1962-67.) Dunlap has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant in 1989 and a McKnight/Intermedia Arts Fellowship in 1994. He has exhibited his work since the late 1960s, inc. a one-person show at the Des Moines Art Center (1990); and a solo show at Franklin Furnace, New York (1992.) Since 1974 he has kept up his daily notebooks.