The Imagined Chase: Joshua Hagler

For this project, Hagler’s second exhibition with Frey Norris, the artist interviewed four men who, although unknown to each other, share commonalities including psychological trauma and complex and unusual philosophical and religious views. The personal testimonies of these four conceptually underpin the work in the exhibition — the artist himself spent dozens of hours interviewing them, including his father and a man who burned down the building Hagler formerly lived in. Hagler animates their respective likenesses in three-dimensional virtual space, editing and re-contextualizing the original audio testimonies. This process imposes mythological or quasi-historical roles–distinct from the original intentions of the four men–as something akin to the gospel “evangelists.” The overall project explores the historical, mystical and psychological substrates which are precursors to the arising of religiosity. Animation, sculptures, and paintings will fill two of Frey Norris’ galleries. Four projections, each one an individual “evangelist,” or animated version of Hagler’s four contributors, play in a twelve-minute continuous and interwoven loop, as though in a complex chorus.

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