Construction of the Victory

Sacrifice, resurrection, and triumph over adversity are subjects of Dial's Construction of the Victory. In this piece, made shortly after Dial's recovery from a serious illness, these Christian themes offer a more conventional vision of death and afterlife. Here, the protagonist is a symbolic everyman shown partially ascended into heaven. Strands of carpet rope, stretched across the scene, allude to the web of life, while the overall red color references the veil of blood and flesh that separates this world from the next. Now freed of earthly hardships, the figure has thrown down two crutches that symbolize the struggle to survive life's obstacles. And as they fall, the crutches form a giant V for victory, the victory over life's vicissitudes finally guaranteed by death, and perhaps the even greater victory over death that is offered by the real of the spirit. Combining Christianity's myths of escape and transport with his own existential angst and gallows humor, Dial captures the travails of human experience and its quest for transcendence.