Dedicated November 12, 2003
Michael Dunbar’s sculptures are identifiable through his aesthetic vocabulary referencing the mechanical and scientific machinery created to advance civilization.
Fabricated in bronze, there is a reference to manufactured or found objects. However, all forms are of his origin. Mechanical by design, he reinstates the biomorphic basis of traditional sculpture with its origins in nature and the human form. His sculptures are about the craftsmanship of tool-makers and the industrial ingenuity and the purity of design that arrives from the necessity of function.
Threading through Michael Dunbar’s sculptures are references to clocks, armillary spheres, astrolabes, sextants, compasses, or mechanical instruments used to measure time, distance and space.
Commissioned in 2002, the large-scale sculpture "North Point" is fabricated in bronze and stands 12 ft. tall and weighs one ton. The title refers to the most important compass designation that serves as the beginning orientation when charting a course or determining a destination.
The sculpture, "North Point," was commissioned through the Lewis and Clark Community College Foundation, with additional in-kind support from the Olin Corporation.
Michael Dunbar is an American artist, born in 1947.
