Soft Fists Insist, 2022
May 11 – June 24, 2022
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY
Soft Fists Insist publication

List of works:
Tinder, 2022 (Beaver-gnawed wood, driftwood found on the banks of the James River, plastic Hercules club, pencil, wax, Virginia clay) 20 x 23 x 10 in.
Wristie, 2022 (Wildhorse Swirl sandtone, plaster, concrete, sweater fuzz, pigment) 12 x 11 x 5.5 in.
Berm Castle 3, 2022 (Sandstone, concrete, glass, sand, Titebond translucent wood glue, friendly plastic, Virginia clay, wax) 6 x 6 x 6 in.
Berm Castle 4, 2022 (Sand, vermiculite, sandbags, Titebond translucent wood glue, Virginia clay, and wax) 15 x 24 x 15 in.
Kindling (for our secret fire), 2021 Cast, modeled, and polished concrete aggregates (glass, stone, shells, gifted marbles, and other materials) 14 x 27 x 9 in.
Soft Fists Insist 1, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 16 x 19.75 in.
Soft Fists Insist 2, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 16 x 19.75 in.
Soft Fists Insist 3, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 16 x 19.75 in.
Soft Fists Insist 4, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 15.75 x 20 in.
Soft Fists Insist 5, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 22 x 29.88 in.
Soft Fists Insist 6, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 20.38 x 29.75 in.
Soft Fists Insist 7, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 20.38 x 29.75 in.
Soft Fists Insist 8, 2022 (Mushroom spores, graphite, and pigment on paper) 20.38 x 29.75 in.
Become Revolution, 2022 (Sewn paper collage) 18.63 x 15.75 in.
Be Still, 2022 (Sewn paper collage) 20.38 x 14.63 in.
To Know Flying, 2022 (Sewn paper collage) 16.63 x 15.88 in.
Water of Your Mouth, 2022 (Sewn paper collage) 15.88 x 15.88 in.

Notes:

Across five sculptures and a dozen works on paper, Cox-Richard gives her materials a renewed sense of agency and meaning as constituent parts of a contemporary work of art. The sculptures employ natural artifacts like driftwood, as well as human-made objects, which overlap disparate sites of “production.” Others comprise of assemblages and fragments, woven, pieced, or casted together. They represent ideas like domesticity, construction, growth and stasis. Each accumulated element of these works is gently balanced on another, implying a precariousness despite the sturdiness of the materials.

Seen in contrast to the deliberateness of her sculpture, the haunting, abstract compositions found in the works on black paper were made by placing oyster mushrooms directly on the sheet and waiting for the mushrooms to release their spores across the surface. The resulting dispersal patterns bloom like clouds on the black sheet, danced into life by wind currents entering the artist’s studio via windows left open overnight.

This invitation of chance into the art-making process shows evidence of a natural system in propagation. Elsewhere, sewn-paper collages maintain the delicacy found in the other work. Combining rubbings of text, spore prints, and fragile candle packing paper with the inherently domestic act of sewing, this suite of works recalls quilt-making traditions, in particular that art form’s long history of embedding political messages during times of oppression.

This exhibition was accompanied by a 16-page catalogue, with full-color illustrations and an interview with the artist. The catalogue is available both digitally and in-print. 

Lily Cox-Richard Soft Fists Insist opened at Hirschl & Adler Modern on Wednesday, May 11
and ran through Friday, June 24, 2022. Located on the 9th floor of the Fuller Building, at the
corner of 57th Street and Madison Avenue, Hirschl & Adler Modern is open Monday through
Friday, from 9:30 am to 5:15 pm.