In The Green Man of Portland, how is the Description discussed?
Daniel Duford's The Green Man of Portland is a 2009 art installation consisting of two outdoor sculptures and eight "story markers" that form a poem. They are installed along ten blocks in Portland's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. Materials include bronze, cast concrete, and porcelain enamel on steel. According to the artist, the work's imagery was inspired by 1970s horror comics and Works Progress Administration (WPA) posters. Duford has said of the installation:With The Green Man of Portland, I have created a fake legend. It goes like this: ever since Portland's founding there have been sightings of small green archers. Whenever the archer hits someone with an arrow, her vision changes. Flowers grow from the heads of passersby, a building called The Greenwood appears, and a giant tree towers over the city. On certain nights, a great white celestial stag is spied in the skies over Portland... The legend encompasses all the varied, transitory communities that call Old Town and Chinatown home. My great hope for this piece is that The Green Man of Portland will quietly twine itself into the fabric and many-layered history of the community.
The work is part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection courtesy of the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
Regional Arts & Culture Council Works Progress Administration bronze Daniel Duford Green Man Old Town Chinatown