Where Ever You Go, There You Are

Dale Copeland
‘Wherever you go, there you are’
Assemblage of found objects: African carved figures with nautical compass on turntable
2020

“The turntable was for working on bonsai trees. Here it holds a compass and these fixed figures. When you spin the turntable, the figures and the compass spin, looking forwards, looking outwards,
but the magnetic needle returns to its starting position, always pointing north. No amount of travel will take you away from your own reality.”

Dale Copeland describes herself as a mathematician-turned-artist. The one time head of a college maths and physics department and freelance computer programmer, Copeland, at the age of forty-three opted for a new lifestyle devoted to art and motherhood. She is now a 6th Dan black belt in Taekwon-Do and is still training regularly. Dale has often been referred to as the back bone of the Taranaki arts community, she is currently the driving force behind the artist collective called Virtual TART which shows their work online through the Virtual TART site www.tart.co.nz. In 2012 Dale was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the arts. Dale lives at Puniho with painter Paul Hutchinson.