MFA Fine Arts Faculty/Alumni American Artist has been awarded the prestigious Creative Capital Award for their sculpture and video installation Shaper of God.
https://creative-capital.org/projects/shaper-of-god/
In a sculpture and video installation entitled Shaper of God, American Artist connects the life and work of Octavia E. Butler to the migration of Black Americans to California, the epicenter of the science fiction movement, and the rocket science industry local to Altadena where Butler and American Artist were born and raised. American Artist’s sculptures often reference quotidian objects that construct social space—like desks, chairs, walls, and industrial tools—but create critical dialogue through inversions of their intent and purpose. Works in Shaper of God will explore what seepages, contaminations, and spurs of thought resonated between Butler and her space-adjacent surroundings at such a formative age. The project also includes an interactive web-based artwork which allows users to navigate color fields and enter portals to uncover seemingly disparate facts about Butler, Black migration, science fiction, and rocket science, similar to playing an 8-bit video game.
