In Dial’s assembled works, he used plywood, and after his introduction to canvas in 1990, he increased the scale size and often attached canvas on stretchers to plywood before integrating his assortment of objects. When History Refused to Die was created, the artist built on years of experience that led to its fully assembled state that showcased an amalgamation of tightly packed materials with the inclusion of his white perched bird. Dial likely incorporated bought and used materials and exerted a variety of labored techniques for practical and aesthetic reasons, which he would have learned from his earlier art creations and during his job occupations. Below, I analyze how Dial’s assembled pieces are associated with the technical components of labor and how they are interwoven in History Refused to Die. His preference for discarded materials as an art medium shows his infatuation with their past usage and purpose. In this chapter, I consider Dial’s learned assemblage techniques and his verbal accounts that reference his experiences performing manual labor. This exploration can be examined with Dial’s learned skills in agriculture and working at the Bessemer’s Pullman Plant.

Dial’s materials in his work have prompted conservators to investigate how he made his work. Recently, conservation projects have developed solutions to carefully preserve Dial’s artwork, but to do this, conservators had to understand what adhesives and other binding tools he used to apply to his media. One case comes of this from the art conservators Maggie Barkovic, Sally Gunhee Kim, Kristen Gillette, and Christine Ruza, who examined the complex material surface and applications of Dial’s collection with the High Museum of Art. Considering the importance of Black labor histories in Dial’s work, Barkovic, Kim, Gillette, and Ruza each took part in a conservation study on his sculptural pieces where they assessed the specific materials he applied in his assemblages from 1980 to 2005. Although Dial’s History Refused to Die is not part of this research project, Barkovic notes that materials containing uncoated wood, plant materials, metals, wire, tin, spray paint, and textiles appeared in several of his assembled works—which are also materials in History Refused to Die.[80]

In Gillette’s section of the conservation project titled Seeing Through a Matrix: Utilizing X-Rays and RTI to Examine Thornton Dial’s Methods of Construction, she emphasizes the technical experience that the artist’s work portrays. She notes that “his methods of working with these materials are drawn from his life experience working in various industries such as metalworking, painting, pipe fitting, bricklaying, and carpentry.[81] Gillette points to the complicated surface matter of Dial’s work, claiming that their conservation team developed an “imagined methodology” of Dial’s process.[82] Gillette’s hypothesis is that Dial stretched a piece of canvas over plywood and then proceeded to mechanically apply his materials using nails, screws, staples, and fastening techniques. After assembling pieces on the stretched canvas, Dial would cover or partially cover the work with sprayed, brushed, or rolled paint layers.[83] Dial offered a similar description of his process when he explained,

“When I went to making art on plywood, I drawed it out first with a pencil, and after that I put on the other materials, stuff I find or stuff I have, like the steel, carpet, and old tin, and then I paint it. But under all those things I did a big drawing to guide what I put on top of it. If I wasn’t drawing under there, I was cutting out with a jigsaw. I cut the figures out of plywood, then the left over pieces become something else in the next picture.”[84]

Dial seemed to utilize a combination of industrious methods to convey a layered theme—each idea he conjured was built upon through a particular piecing process. Each object seemed to be in relation to another object. His techniques were both practical for his artwork and preferable since he engaged with media that he was familiar with and found value in. Many preferable objects Dial incorporated into his work, including History Refused to Die were steel, wood, tin, and old clothes.

Dial’s assemblage process of assorted objects was analyzed in more depth using intense digital x-ray scanning systems which enabled conservation researchers to hypothesize his material maneuvering and application. Researchers found that Dial regularly used adhesives such as Splash Zone to sculpt three-dimensional objects together and followed up by adding surface textures. Furthermore, Dial differed in his mechanical fastening techniques for his backboard supports and his attachment of various wood and metal pieces. A variety of nails, screws, and wire types were employed by Dial, but this was dependent on the construction task.[85] Another finding was Dial’s use of alkyd-based paint, a type of paint that is in both house and spray paint. For salvaged organic and non-organic materials, Dial would often search in wooded areas or junkyards.[86]