Knapsack

Carl E. Hazlewood & Stacy Fisher

curated by Chris Fennell

May 30 - July 26, 2019 
Opening: Thursday, May 30, 6 to 8 P.M.

“I have even begun to speak in foreign tongues roaming like a nomad in my own town.” 
W.G. Sebald, Across the Land and the Water: Selected Poems, 1964-2001

The knapsack evokes both the light and the heavy. It emblematizes movement across borders and lands, cultures and languages. It is stripped down, essential, and its bearer perhaps only passing through. It conjures asceticism, freedom, and detachment from the material. The flip side of this corporeal trimming away is the density of what remains. The act of choosing one’s prima materia lends weight to its duty as a provisional avatar for the now. One scans its contents for signs and omens, for the spark of consciousness teased out by the remainder implying the whole, like archaeologists mentally assembling some long-extinct creature from a jawbone or the singular cylindrical bone of a finger. As in any investment (time/thought/emotion/outcomes), disclaimers may apply: “the performance represented is historical,” “past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results,” “investors may not recover the full amount invested.” The knapsack sheds this false valuation in search of things other than beans to count. As Homer says, “The journey is the thing.”

Carl E. Hazlewood, MacDowell Fellow, holds a BFA (with honors) from Pratt, and an MA from Hunter College. Recent residencies and fellowships include The Brown Foundation Fellows Program at the Dora Maar House, Ménerbes, France, The Bogliasco Foundation, Genoa, Italy, the NARS Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, Yaddo, and the Vermont Studio Center. His works have been exhibited at Ortega y Gasset Projects, Knockdown Center, Dieu Donné, Abrons Arts Center, and Long Island University, among others, and have been written about in BOMB Magazine, NY Times, and Hyperallergic.

Stacy Fisher holds a BFA from Ohio State University. Her recent residencies include Chautauqua School of Art, Vermont Studio Center, Edward Albee Foundation, and LMCC Process Space. Her works have been exhibited at Andrew Edlin Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, 106 Green, Sardine, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Regina Rex, and Cleopatra’s, among others, and have been written about in The New York Times and Artforum.com.