Green Man
36” x 22” x 36”
Cast iron
2017
2017 Hot Metal Artist
Artist Statement
I think of my work as a process of weirding space in order to challenge our predominant modes of encounter. I am interested in our often-disastrous relationships with the natural environment and in ephemeral moments of human experience: the time we spend walking or in transit, the items we discard, the carelessness of mark making. Such interactions with the world around us are among our most mundane and intimate; they separate us from one another, are potentially damaging to those we encounter, and at the same time make us fundamentally human. As an artist, I create small acts of lyricism and strangeness, inviting viewers to reconsider the mundane.
In this piece, I wanted the viewer to experience a momentary, impish intrusion of nature into human space. Philosopher and literary critic Walter Benjamin was a great believer in the power of laughter to bring about changes in perception. My hope is that Green Man will provoke laughter and provides food for thought about our relationship with the natural world, the marks we leave upon it and the marks it leaves upon us. Co-opting, disrupting, destabilizing, opposing, holding forth, building small fires of meaning and protest in the cracks—this is what I want my work to achieve.
Alix Anne Shaw
Born: Tecumseh, MI, USA, 1972
Resides: Chicago, IL, USA & Milwaukee, WI, USA
Education
MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2015
BA, Yale University, 1994