HANCOCK -- The Community Arts Center is pleased to present Flying Dump Trucks: an Art Installation Celebrating a 50 year Reunion, by Dale Junttila, Aug. 6-29, at the Community Arts Center's Kerredge Gallery in Hancock. A reception, with a gallery talk, will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 6.
Flying Dump Trucks is a wall-mounted exhibit depicting (250) vintage Tonka Toy dump trucks in flight. The full exhibit is almost 40' long and 8' high with streams of red and teal dump trucks "taking flight" at a 10-degree angle. It resembles a massive flock of Canadian Geese "on take-off and heading South" for winter migration.
The exhibit is a compilation of 20 years of gathering Tonka Dump Trucks circa 1959 made in Mound, Minnesota, by designer and collector Dale Junttila of Minneapolis.
Junttila says in his artist's statement: "Upon finding a perfect mint specimen, it occurred to me that all of these trucks (in my small collection) were very special -- a link to my past, my childhood, my era. So I decided to set about hunting down mass quantities for a grand exhibit. I scoured every flea market, garage sale, estate sale, antique shop that I could find. Each dump truck arrived one-at-a-time and was welcomed to its rightful place in the exhibit. It is my hope to encourage people to 'stop and wonder' and experience (or re-experience) a point in time -- before moon-landings, before personal computers, before video games and before cell phones -- when kids just wanted to 'play-in-the-dirt.'"
Dale Junttila grew up in Iowa and is a lifelong summer resident of the Copper Country. He is a designer and Principal at Finnwood Company, an industrial design, project management firm. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Janelle and four sons.
The Community Arts Center is located at 126 Quincy Street in Hancock, Michigan. This exhibit is partially funded with a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and corporate sponsorship from McGann Building Supply in Hancock. For more information call (906) 482-2333 or email ccarts@chartermi.net.
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