Joshua Hagler

joshuahagler.com | @haglerjosh

Scraped and salvaged terrains: made from leftover materials and studio scraps, Hagler’s “New Mexico” series explores our fraught relationship with land and landscapes.

Joshua Hagler Artist Statement:

These small abstracts/landscapes are typically made in a number of short bursts over a period of time until they're finished.  The materials are always leftover--leftover paint, scraps, wood, etc.--and comprise what I have been calling the "New Mexico" series for the past year or so.  I think it's this kind of "scraped-together" materiality that gives them their pathos. Since starting them, I've come to feel that the "New Mexico" I mean to convey is really in the sense of relation I have to the land here, its felt presence, the shift in my orientation with space and time in living here, more than it is a depiction of the place itself.  Recently, I've noticed the strangeness of the sunsets as the western states, including New Mexico, burn.  There is a way that suddenly being able to look directly at the sun, its beauty and portension of danger, what I remember the surrealists calling "convulsive beauty," resembles life in general now: a baby who doesn't eat because of a tongue- and lip-tie and the self-imposed quarantine we keep ourselves in because of our concern for her health especially.  The sun gets dimmer, the rooms of our house get smaller, our sleep gets shorter, our bodies fall apart.  I have allergies in September, a first, and Mila, at the same time, got a sinus infection.  I can't prove it has to do with the fires, but we keep seeing these little yellow finches dead around town, and it turns out they're dying throughout the state: New Mexico Mystery: Why Are So Many Birds Dropping Dead? So it seems to me that if the fires can kill these birds, they can certainly cause allergies and sinus infections.  I guess that's not to do specifically with the paintings, but these are the things I think about while making them.  I would compare them to something more like a haiku than a heavy well-researched essay.

Checklist:

1. Mountain, mixed media on wood panel, 16” x 12”, 2020

2. Sunshine, oil on canvas mounted on wood panel, 10” x 8”, 2020

3. The Sun Behind the Sky, mixed media on wood panel, 16” x 12”, 2020