A large, abstract wooden sculpture with smooth, flowing curves is positioned outside a modern building. The sculpture features various cutouts and a textured surface, showcasing the natural grain of the wood. In the background, large glass windows reflect the interior space, which includes warm lighting and wooden elements. The ground is composed of gravel and surrounded by green foliage.

Michael Dennis, Reclining Woman, 1992, red cedar. SFU Art Collection. Gift of Russell Precious, 1995.  

ECU Photography
A large, abstract wooden sculpture with smooth, flowing curves is positioned outside a modern building. The sculpture features various cutouts and a textured surface, showcasing the natural grain of the wood. In the background, large glass windows reflect the interior space, which includes warm lighting and wooden elements. The ground is composed of gravel and surrounded by green foliage.

Title

Reclining Woman

Artist

Michael Dennis

Year

1992

Medium

Red cedar

Collection

SFU Art Collection

Donor

Gift of Russell Precious

Year Acquired

1995

Reclining Woman is a large sculpture situated outside southeast corner of the Academic Quadrangle on SFU’s Burnaby campus. Michael Dennis often produced large forms from wood left behind by loggers that in some cases are carved to suggest anthropomorphic forms; Reclining Woman has been lightly shaped to suggest a human form. Some have speculated that this sculpture is a mate to another work by Dennis located at a park in Mount Pleasant. In 2013, the park took the vernacular title of that sculpture as its name, and is now affectionately known as Dude Chilling Park.  

Artists

Michael Dennis (1941–) was born in Los Angeles and was a professor of neurophysiology at the University of California at Berkeley before turning to art in the 1980s. Dennis has lived on Denman Island for many years and his sculptures are made with wood sourced on Vancouver Island.