Green Man
Thursday 7 April 6pm GMT
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I've been meaning to make a version of the Green Man for years.
One of the main reasons I make my work, as obvious at it sounds, is so I can look at imagery I want to look at, and share it.
The Green Man has been cropping up in various ways in several books I’ve been reading recently and, as Spring starts a-springing here, I've been wanting to see a version of him that is fierce and dark and pleasing to behold, so I made this.
I’ve had an affinity with and interest in the Green Man since my weekly visits to my dear old friend Ben when I was a teenager. He was an eccentric, funny and mystical old fella who had made his tiny council estate pensioner’s bungalow into a bonkers installation packed with his own folk art interpretations of Arthurian, Egyptian, Pagan and Christian mysteries. Every Tuesday evening me and my mate Jonny would sit around at his, chain-smoking, drinking tea, and listening to his tales of travelling around the ancient sites of Britain on his motorbike, and various and numerous other stories and schemes, as he puffed away on his pipe.
He also often read strange and wondrous texts to us, got us into classical music, and had us inspecting OS maps inch by inch looking for unlikely wells, stone circles, barrows and tumps to visit around the country.
Ben was a massive influence on me, and I was with him when he died, which was an amazing and life-altering experience.
Listening to Ben read out the Arthurian tale of Gawain and the Green Knight was where I first remember hearing about a version of the Green Man. He shows up all over the world in lots of ways, but is maybe best known in this country as the foliage-spewing head found carved on hundreds of churches, cathedrals and other old buildings all over England in particular, like a pagan photobomber. A Pan-like Lord of Misrule doing his own thing in the shrubbery, dark and a bit menacing, signifying the cycle of life and death and rebirth - something ancient and eternal, the call of the wild.
Green Man will be releasing via my gallery in London E10 (details below) and via my website, both at 6pm GMT on Thursday 7th April.
Letterpress print and heat-pressed foil
on heavyweight 350gsm Senses Botanical Green paper
42cm x 29.7cm
£120
Colour options:
Gold: is a signed and numbered print from a limited edition of 200
Green Gold: is a signed and numbered print from a limited edition of 40
Holographic Gold: is a signed and numbered print from a limited edition of 40
For more details on finding the gallery and whatnot, click your clicker here.
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Argall Works is just 30 minutes by public transport from central London to Lea Bridge overground station, via either Stratford (Central & Jubilee Lines) or Tottenham Hale (Victoria Line), and then a 7 minute walk.
If you're driving parking is available.
You can best find us by clicking here or typing 'Dan Hillier' into Google maps.
Dan Hillier Gallery
Argall Works
7-9 Argall Avenue
London
E10 7QE
