American Artist Brings Science Fiction Into Reality in 'Shaper of God'
On view at Pioneer Works until April 13.
Pioneer Works is currently showcasing a solo exhibition by American Artist inspired by the life and legacy of science fiction luminary Octavia E. Butler. With titular cues from her seminal, post-apocalyptic novel Parable of the Sower, Shaper of God circles similar ideas of climate change, unchecked power and corporate greed through a striking display of sculpture, installation, drawing and video.
The exhibition interlaces Butler’s resonant, speculative worlds with intimate details of her life, tracing her radical, political imagination through lived experiences. In “Estella Butler’s Apple Valley Autonomy” (2024,) for example, Artist reimagines her grandmother’s chicken coop and explores how its burning gave rise to the prevalence of fire in her most famed stories. Complementing the sculptures on view is a constellation of vitrine-encapsulated drawings – meticulously hand-traced, archival relics from Butler’s namesake collection at the Huntington Library.”
Like Butler, Artist spent their formative years in and around Altadena and Pasadena – communities that have been largely devastated by the recent Los Angeles wildfires. “It’s bittersweet because the show is really a celebration of that place. Maybe it will add more depth to people’s experience of the work, because now a lot of people know about Altadena,” they told ARTnews in a recent interview. “It feels like, in a way, I’m debuting that place, but people are coming into it with the context that it has burned down.”
With place and space at the forefront, Artist highlights the profound connections that shape our lives. In “To Acorn (1984)” (2022), Artist channels Butler’s affinity to the city bus system, blending stop signs that mark the route Butler traveled while writing her novels with various elements from her fictional worlds. At the foot of the signs, steel agave blooms serve as a symbolic barrier, referencing the communal protection of Acorn in the first Parable novel, which, Artist noted, “suggests that building community is our best chance for survival.”
Shaper of God is now on view until April 13, 2025.
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer St,
Brooklyn, NY 11231
