Rogers Street, Atlanta (from the series Monster)

Images(2)

Rogers Street, Atlanta (from the series Monster)

Artist Beth Lilly (American, born 1963)

Date2007 (printed 2011)

Mediumpigment print

DimensionsMat: 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
Support: 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm)
Image: 14 × 19 in. (35.6 × 48.3 cm)

ClassificationsPhotograph

Credit LineMuseum purchase, 2017

Object number2017.13

DescriptionHorizontal composition with heavily trimmed tree trunk at left with branches extending across length of picture. Next to it and in background ar utlity poles and wires. At right is a chain-link fence.
Text Entries

Object Notes

Artist’s statement about the series “Monster” from her website 11/15/17: Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, written during the Industrial Revolution, created a brand new mythical creature – the man-made monster. This series documents the urban “street trees” found in American southern cities that have seen recent explosive growth. The idea of an actual turf war waging unnoticed on city streets captured my imagination and I began to photograph these trees as portraits, showing how their efforts to survive recurrent attacks formed their grotesque shapes.

Emuseum Notes

In her series “Monster,” Beth Lilly photographs urban trees as a way to examine the human relationship with nature. The trees are thriving and have adapted themselves to the presence of power lines in the landscape, often resulting in bizarre forms. The title of the series refers both to these extreme and sometimes haunting shapes as well as to the society whose values have created them.

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