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© Joshua Hagler

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Joshua Hagler

Roswell

Artist Statement

"I began pulling loose planks out of the cellar hole, the right corner at the front. ​ They were splintery and full of snaggled nails, but I pulled them out and tossed them onto the ground behind me, for all the world as if I had some real purpose or intention. ​ It was difficult work, but I have often noticed that it is almost intolerable to be looked at, to be watched, when one is idle. ​ When one is idle and alone, the embarrassments of loneliness are almost endlessly compounded. ​ So I worked till my hair was damp and my hands were galled and tender, with what must have seemed wild hope, or desperation. ​ I began to imagine myself a rescuer. ​ Children had been sleeping in this fallen house. ​ Soon I would uncover the rain-stiffened hems of their nightshirts, and their small, bone feet, the toes all fallen like petals. Perhaps it was already too late to help. ​ They had lain under the snow through far too many winters, and that was the pity. ​ But to cease to hope would be the final betrayal."

-Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping

© Joshua Hagler

Joshua Hagler's Portfolio

© Joshua Hagler

Artist Biography

presence over message

seen into, not looked at

contact over “dialogue”

an end to political language

skepticism toward in-group consensus

neither resistance nor capitulation

don’t sit where you’re not wanted

your legs will need to be strong, which is good

because they are

self-exile from all tribes

poetry over theory

intention toward over concept about

what is revealed over what is sought

meaning a meaningless game

if its not soulful, don’t do it

if it’s expected, don’t do it

identity as what ineffably surrounds, unasserted

self as vessel for, not as source of

disintegration of the familiar order

submission to time

to remember time beyond the human scale

authenticity in movement

no more need to impress or justify

you never proved anything

because there is nothing to prove

and no one to prove it to

joshuahagler.com

@haglerjosh

© Joshua Hagler

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