Turkey Tower

In his early work Turkey Tower, Thornton Dial creates an anti-monument to domestic turkeys. Well versed in the habits of these birds since he raised them, Dial would often joke about their legendary lack of intelligence. For this sculpture he created a tower from cast-off chair legs manufactured by Dial Metal Patterns. This piece might represent the artist’s tongue-in-cheek thanksgiving for the initial success of Dial Metal Patterns at the same time it gently pokes fun at the family’s grand ambitions by comparing them to his earlier aspirations to make money by raising turkeys.