Label Type
Technique or ProcessLabel
David Ireland’s dumbballs are his signature object formed by passing a lump of concrete from hand to hand (over a period of hours) until a sphere sets up and hardens. An artwork that requires time and repetition (calling into question notions of craft and artist’s decision-making), the dumbball is key to David Ireland’s view of creativity. Each dumbball’s creation is a performance that engages the body as much as the mind. the meditative process itself becomes the work. When the work becomes a hardened permanent object the artist’s commitment ends, bringing the piece to completion.