Perhaps I'm Being Too Literal...

So, perhaps I'm being a bit literal but Duane Hanson's Slab Man is a piece that has caught my eye every time I have been to the Cantor and could, perhaps, be the literal embodiment of embodiment...(?)  Now, I am an object maker so it makes sense that I might be drawn to Hanson's piece due to it's display of technical mastery, or perhaps it's the fact that I have done my fair share of manual labor and can relate to this disheveled, rough, depiction of working-class fatigue.  While these things may be true there's more to it than that.  The most intriguing thing about Slab Man is that no matter how much I know that he is an artificial construction of synthetic polymers and everyday clothing, the fact remains that he constantly startles me!  During my time in the gallery he remains in my peripheral field as a member of the general museum goers and then I turn to focus on him and I am startled once again!  Is there a problem with my short term memory?  Do I fear manual labor that much?  Or is it the instinctual reaction to the perceived physical presence of a large human  in my vicinity that causes this reaction.  I do empathize with him; the apparent fatigue, the dirt, the disheveled appearance, all reminders of a past life that I honor, but have made great efforts to enrich in other ways.  There is honor there and pathos...  Yet I am still impressed by my repeated physical reaction to the piece.  Though I value a controlled perspective in my own work I think Hildebrand got it wrong with this one; it's the fact that we can interact with this work, that it does come into our space as an equal member of the crowd and that we appear to have no control over it except our ability to retreat from it that gives it its power.  Plus, I'm pretty sure he had B. O. ...