Evoking Monsters and Otherworldly Creatures: Fairy Tales, Folklore and Myths Embedded in Geographies | Anne Eder
Anne Eder is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. She creates sculptures from organic materials and documents them through photography. In the silhouettes of the woods, her otherworldly creatures and portals evoke the imagination of mythical dimensions. For her, our core beliefs are shaped by these discreet geographies, myths, folklore, and religion, all stemming from the natural world.
She also advocates for increasing the accessibility and affordability of the arts.
In nature, one thing often suggests another—branches are tentacles, dendrites, lightning, systems of transport. A line of rock cropping up becomes a spine, stegosaurus plates, or armor. These connections, combinations of pattern recognition and embedded ancient narratives, are the raw materials of my process.
My work takes place in the intersection where the natural world meets the narrative impulse. It has deep roots in folklore, fairy tales, and my own childhood experiences.
For as long as I can remember, I have spoken “plant” and mediated the darkness with a camera.
Myths and fairy tales provide a platform where we may consider fundamental issues such as good and evil, trauma and bliss, suffering and magic. Monsters and other fantastical creatures take on substantial cultural work, allowing us to externalize and contemplate our monstrous side while also representing otherness and forces outside our control.
Anne Eder
Protectors or destroyers, these creatures elicit reflection on the complexities of our nature. Through our engagement with fiction, we exercise our imagination, engage in problem-solving, and find hope that difficulties may be overcome.
The work alludes to already archived stories, using a fictional framework as a point of entry. My environmental concerns have led me to develop strategies that aim toward sustainability and working in tandem with nature.
As an interdisciplinary artist, I work in photography, sculpture, and other media. Sculptures and artifacts begin as installation pieces in public spaces and double as components in image-making. Most are designed to decompose and return to the earth while I document the entropic phase, offering a durational and often interactive experience.
Stories fire our imagination, give us hope, and support our ability to problem-solve. By employing fictions—monsters, ghosts, and semiotically charged objects such as teeth, bones, cocoons, or moth wings—I build a language around fundamental ideas such as the cycle of life, otherness, good and evil, and spirituality.
Explore Anne’s website for more.
