Adam Daley Wilson — YOU CHOSE TO MISREMEMBER SO WE HAVE MOVED ON — 2020
Adam Daley Wilson, Aspect / Ratio Projects Gallery Chicago
You Chose To Misremember So We Have Moved On is a story of place. In this story, the natural world holds the narrative voice—a voice of all other species except us. The narrative recounts that nature has held us in judgment, under objective natural law, impartial and pure, as to how we have comported ourselves, on this earth, in our time, in this place. The offense is our collective act of misremembering, committed with fatal intent—purposeful, intentional, premeditated, plainly with malice aforethought: Our refusal to remember the fabric, our insistence of no boundaries of place. The location of our offense has been found to be Everywhere; there is not one realm of the planet where we have abided by notions of balance or limits. The sanction for our decision to misremember is not punitive; this is natural law; the sanction is simply consequential causal fact. The rest of nature will move on. It is evolving for what is coming. The fabric will be different, but in some real sense it will remain intact. The rest of nature will move on, after final reminders to us that we purposefully misremembered the need to truly evolve, truly respect the fabric, truly honor the pact.
This work is part of the artist’s personal writing system—here, rapidly executed in layers. These works begin with blank canvas on his hallway studio wall, for weeks or even months, as the elements of the text work start to form in his mind. At some point, often on no notice, all hours of the day and night, both the specific text and the form of the work become clear, and the artist rushes to capture—a process resulting in broken oil sticks, blisters on his fingers, sweat even in winter, and sometimes tears—as the work comes out in the artist’s handwriting until he can tell, physically, emotionally, it is over. This work is completely in the artist’s loose handwriting, and is a full, complete, coherent written narrative, albeit one that is partially illegible due to the speed of the artist’s hand.