Matthew Parker: Hard Body

Exhibition Dates: September 4 - October 17, 2025 Opening: Thursday, September 4, 6:00 — 8:00pm Second Reception: Thursday, October 2, 6:00 — 8:00pm In 2023, after nearly a decade of unexplained and worsening health, Parker was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis following a sudden relapse event that left him unable to feel the right side of his body. Going forward, he began to reevaluate his approach to art-making—using lightweight, yielding materials to create replicas of a common object. What started with a single foam rock has now grown into an expansive installation of dozens of large faux boulders and thousands of small, hand-carved imitation pebbles. This body of work is, in itself, a durational performance in which the slow, repetitive act of carving each stone became a ritual of adaptation, turning the ordinary into something both accessible and paradoxically demanding. Though the forms are light and soft, the labor embedded in each of them reveals an invisible weight. Parker’s practice reflects both constraint and persistence, transforming physical limitation into a quiet yet absurd endurance piece almost three years in the making. "Hard Body" asks us to consider the ontologies of disability and ability in regard to space and our relationship with labor. Much of the exhibition was informed by two key texts: "The Myth of Sisyphus," in which philosopher and author Albert Camus uses the Greek myth of Sisyphus—a man condemned to endlessly roll a boulder uphill only for it to roll back down— as a metaphor for the human struggle to find meaning in a meaningless world; and "Health Communism," which argues that true health liberation requires dismantling the capitalist systems that exploit illness and disability, proposing a radical reimagining of care and the value of all bodies beyond productivity. Artist Talk: Saturday, September 27, 2:00-3:00pm Join Parker and learn more about Hard Body. No registration is required to attend the talk. Light refreshments will be provided.

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Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3198921-0

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