Reflecting on Strike Fast, Dance Lightly
A Meditation on Strike Fast, Dance Lightly by Eric Fischl
This old bronze boxer, bruised and cut, is still sweating. He has come to the end of his fighting life or just past it. He looks over his shoulder, looks back, hears voices callimg out of his corner, calling him back. Cornered. Punch drunk. Exhuasted. Knows only what he knows.
The Pugilist at Rest
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
”I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains
PAUL SIMON - The Boxer
The old artist stares into his bathroom mirror. Harsh yellow light captures and silhouettes his shadowed head, painted the color of dried blood. His fists are clenched, arms splattered red, bruised and beaten by the paint that created him. He has portrayed himself not as an amateur but inept. He’s fought against the perfection that taunts and eludes him. It is the life of the artist whose time was spent shadowing-boxing demons.
Bonnard’s Le Boxeur (portrait de l’artiste)
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
LEONDARD COHEN - Hallelujah
Strike Fast, Dance Lightly is an exhibition of artists who have taken their cues from the imagery and accoutrements of boxing, not as sport but as metaphor for the physical and emotional battles waged over the demands of our spirit and our minds. It is a show of gilded darkness: a light filled arena, full of brute force and dark materials. This is a show by artists who’ve answered the bell and made art that asks each of us; What are we fighting for? What is worth fighting for? Pulling no punches, this show is poignant, powerful, rough and tender, full of creative raging.
Strike Fast, Dance Lightly is about weight class. It is the heavy weight of responsibility that comes with accepting the truths in our lives. Acknowledging the rules of the game without accepting its limitations, this is art that does what art is supposed to do: it points us in the direction of higher purpose.
The art works in Strike Fast, Dance Lightly reveal what it means to stay open, honest and in touch with our vulnerability, accept the risks we are willing to take to learn who we are, and the bravery to go toe to toe to face ourselves.
-ERIC FISCHL, 2023