Dave Cole

“New Landscapes” University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth University Art Gallery 2020-2021

Encaustic Paintings (Shoe Polish and Beeswax on Cement Board) with Broken Textile-Mill Windows of vast ruined landscapes on fire, seen through the specter of broken buildings suspended mid-gallery from above.

1. Order of the Falcon; The People’s Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia

2. Medal for Valor; Kingdom of Prussia

3. The Order of Light; Sultanate of Tadjoura, French Somali Land

4. The Order of Auspicious Clouds; Kingdom of Manchukuo. Protectorate of the Empire of Japan, Asian Co-Prosperity Zone

5. The Order of the Brilliant Star of Zanzibar; Sultanate of Zanzibar

Enameled cast iron

2015 - 2018

Each medal; H 49” x W 37” x D 6”, 300 pounds

Mixed Media with antique dress form and antlers.

H51 x W18 x D22 inches.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

Three Generations, 2013

Functional hand-turned hardwood and sterling silver baby rattles. 

The forms of the individual rattles correspond with the fragmentation hand grenades used by the United States during World War II (Mk.2 or 'pineapple'), during The Vietnam War (M26 or 'lemon'), and that model currently in use (M67 or 'baseball'). 

H2.75 x W11.25 x D17.5 inches

Photo: Jason Mandella

The Music Box, 2012

Caterpillar CS-553 Vibratory Roller-Compacter with cherry wood, spring steel and United States National Anthem (arranged for steamroller).

Made Possible with support from The Cleveland Institute of Art, Caterpillar Equipment Company, and Ohio Cat Inc.

H11 x W8 x D19 feet.

Photo: Carly Gaebe

Singer, 2012

Antique industrial sewing machine, vintage teletype paper, wireless internet connection.

The machine (by way of a computer within the drawer) queries the internet looking for instructions by picking randomly from a lengthy list of search terms related to its own operation. By adjusting its stitch length (via computer controlled DC stepper motors), Singer then 'prints' the results in binary code onto teletype 'ticker' tape.

H39 x W48 x D21 inches.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

Leaves of Grass, 2010

Hand-cut, previously-fired military rifle cartridge cases, with melted bullets and bullet fragments.

H6 x W32 x D94 inches.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

Grass

By Carl Sandberg

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.

Shovel them under and let me work—

I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg

And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.

Shovel them under and let me work.

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:

What place is this?

Where are we now?

I am the grass.

Let me work.

American Flag (Lead), 2013

Pure lead sheet with stainless steel cable, hand-sewn.

H42.25 x W80 x D3 inches.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

American Flag (Bullets), 2013

Recovered bullets and bullet fragments.

H23 x W44 x D4 inches.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

Song-Books of the War, 2012

Mixed media with invalid chair and 198 pounds (approximately 20,000) buffalo nickels, being my weight at the time.

H49.75 x W26 x D43 inches.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

Song-Books Of The War

Siegfried Sassoon, 1916

In fifty years, when peace outshines

Remembrance of the battle lines,
Adventurous lads will sigh and cast
Proud looks upon the plundered past.
On summer morn or winter's night,
Their hearts will kindle for the fight,
Reading a snatch of soldier-song,
Savage and jaunty, fierce and strong;
And through the angry marching rhymes
Of blind regret and haggard mirth,
They'll envy us the dazzling times
When sacrifice absolved our earth.

Some ancient man with silver locks
Will lift his weary face to say:
'War was a fiend who stopped our clocks
Although we met him grim and gay.'
And then he'll speak of Haig's last drive,
Marvelling that any came alive
Out of the shambles that men built
And smashed, to cleanse the world of guilt.
But the boys, with grin and sidelong glance,
Will think, 'Poor grandad's day is done.'
And dream of lads who fought in France
And lived in time to share the fun.

Salt Print (La Somme, 1916) IV, 2010-2013

Pure Sodium Chloride (table salt) heated to liquid state and crucible-poured into impressions taken from the tracks of a British Mark I Armored Fighting Vehicle: the first military tank. 

Made possible through the cooperation of the United States Army, The Aberdeen Proving Ground, and The US Army Ordinance Corps Museum.

26 x 36 x 22 inches 

Image: Stewart Clements Photography

The Jackhammer Orchestra (1:16 scale model of proposed functional installation), 2010

Final installation will be a fully functional pneumatic musical instrument--24 tuned jack hammers built on the chassis of an excavator, playable either by preprogrammed 'player' program, or by direct use of functional keyboard.

H9 x W9 x D12.5 inches

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

Flags of the World, 2008

United Nations official 192 piece “Flags of the World” set, cut and re-sewn.

Shown as installed at The Armory Show in 2013

H180 x W342 inches.

Photo: Jason Mandella

2008/2010

Spun statuary bronze with 12 gauge shotguns

72 x 66 x 10 inches

Vox (Pledge Of Allegiance)

Mixed media animatronic/kinetic installation with vintage telegraph station, incandescent light bulb, and Morse code transmission (The Pledge of Allegiance).

An animatronic Morse code transmitter, repeatedly keying The Pledge Of Allegiance in Morse Code--the key moving as if by the hand of the absent operator, while a blinking lightbulb echoes the transmission.

10 x 13 x 9 inches

2009

Fluorescent vinyl, hand knit, with bridge.

16 x 240 feet

Exhibition History: Big West Festival, Melbourne, Australia

Baseball Study #6, 2008

mixed media with regulation baseball and M67 antipersonnel fragmentation hand-grenade

H8 x W10 x D5 inches

The Money Dress, 2006

United States currency ($1124), hand-cut and hand-knit

61 x 13 x 31 inches

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

The Evolution of the Knitting Needle through Modern Warfare, 2000-2005

Mixed media, United States Army knitting needles (hypothetical) with issued carrying cases in mahogany vitrine.

Collection of The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery.

1. Civil War

'Knitting Needles'

American Chestnut and Iron With Leather and Wood Case

2. Spanish American War

'Knitting Needles'

Mahogany With Waxed Canvas and Leather Case

3. World War One

'Knitting Needles, Infantry'

Box Alder, Black Walnut and Brass, With Cotton Case

4. World War Two

'Needles, Knitting'

Steel and Brass With Field Issue Canvas Case

5. Korean War

'Needles, Knitting, Cold Climate'

Bakelite and Aluminum With Cotton and Rubberized Canvas Case

6. Vietnam War

'Needles, Knitting, Infantry'

Aluminum, With M1973 ALICE Pouch, Needles, Knitting, Infantry

7. Persian Gulf War

'NSN#8315008924360 Needles, Knitting'

Carbon Fiber and Ceramic With Urethane High-Impact Transport Container    

H45 x W68 x D36 inches.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography

The Knitting Machine, 2005

Functional Installation with Acrylic Felt and Excavators.

Shown in its final state, the installation took place over the period of a week, during which time we knit the entire flag (approx. 500 stitches) with the machines. 

Made possible with the support of John Deere, Schmidt Equipment, Foss Engineered Non-Woven Textiles, National Grid, Mass MoCA, and The Steel Yard, Providence.

Photo: Mass MoCA

2003

182 rolls of Fiberglass building insulation, hand knit with urethane fixative

16 x 16 x 14 feet

Exhibition History: deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

Porcelain Baby Blanket, 2002

Fiberfrax refractory ceramic textile, hand-knit with aluminum display case.

Chemically the same as porcelain, vitreous aluminosilicate fibers are used in a wide variety of very high temperature industrial applications. With a rated operating temperature of 3500 degrees Fahrenheit (1760 degrees Celsius), this blanket could, theoretically be dipped in molten steel (2500 F./1370 C.) and emerge unscathed. An unpleasant material to work with, this piece was hand-knit within an asbestos removal 'glove-bag' to avoid skin and respiratory exposure. 

52 x 40 x 20 inches with case and pedestal.

Photo: Stewart Clements Photography