Deerfield, USA
(detail)
2008; aerial imagery
printed on paper,
copper rod, artificial
sinew; 36 x 34 x 7 in.
Top right:
Fennec Fox (Dog Star)
2009; ink on paper, cop-
per rod, artificial sinew
17.5 x 14 x 12 in.
Middle right:
Monkey Goes to
Bollywood,
2008
Bollywood lobby cards,
copper rod, artificial
sinew; 19 x 18.5 x 24 in.
Right:
Mexican Prairie Dog
2010; archival inkjet
print on paper, grenade
parts, copper rod,
artificial sinew
i
3
X
7
-
75
Xi°in.
Far right:
Juniper Tree Bird,
2009
vintage book pages,
copper rod, artificial
sinew; 5 x 10.5 x 7 in.
wanted less obvious symbolism. So the new
guy is not a prairie dog holding a grenade or
a deer whose hide depicts suburban sprawl;
the
Jack-dor
communicates through sheer
volume. “That this creature is larger than
the average person speaks for itself,” she
says. The 8-foot sculpture stands on two
anatomically correct horse legs, as a sort of
powerful, bipedal declaration to the human
world that maybe the animal kingdom has
had enough. It combines three forms
Lemanski loves; the head of a Tehuantepec
jackrabbit, the torso of a California condor,
and those sinewy equine legs. Two of the
component species are critically endangered.
Animals have always been close to Le-
manski’s heart. As a child in rural Ubly, in
the thumb of Michigan’s mitt, she played
outdoors from the minute school let out
until bedtime, sometimes bringing home
injured rabbits, pigeons, and chipmunks.
She helped her more aggressive brother
flush out gophers by pouring water down
their holes. Now she and her artist husband,
Matthew Anders, have a “gigantic dog; he’s
the love of my life.”
She has exorcized less charitable feelings
about wildlife in her work, too. She created
the silvery
Rattus Mannus
around the time
of a rodent outbreak at their home in rural
Spruce Pine, North Carolina, where she and
Anders are constructing studio space out of
auto shipping containers.
030 american craft fcb/m arn
