Chris
Meet Chris, our sixth occupant of Laziness. Chris is an independent writer and curator who works in the Forestry, Horticulture, and Natural Resources Division of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. From 2014–2017 he was a reporter for The Wave newspaper in Rockaway Beach, where he covered topics related to infrastructural development and other post-Hurricane Sandy resilience-building efforts. He has also curated a handful of exhibitions including The Banned Exhibition, a two-person show with Darja Bajagić and Boyd Rice that he restaged at Galleri Golsa, Oslo in 2020 after it's host gallery caved to censorship pressures during its initial showing in New York.
In Chris’ own words, “Laziness has always been tricky for me, ha. I had a number of synchronistic moments perusing the contents of the bookshelves at the Broodthaers Society. I had brought some of my own literature, too, and started drafting a reflection about past circumstances in which I found myself ‘demoralized’ and in a kind of second state outside of society's terms. And had resigned myself to it.
“After further consideration, I'm not sure that what I had in mind to write about fits very well in the context of Laziness as a piece, at least not one to share publicly. Essentially it was going to be about the alienation that comes with being a hard drug addict, which I've experienced until pretty recently. The ‘work’ of maintaining an addiction became my life's work because the drug I indulged in—meth—empowered me to put art at the center of my life. But drugs eventually stop working. Too many years had passed dealing with the ups and downs of that cycle. Eventually doing meth was only about avoiding discomfort. It wasn't about giving up everything for my work anymore.
“So, while there is overlap and relevance to the topic of laziness in that struggle, I don't think now is the time to go into all that.”
In Chris’ own words, “Laziness has always been tricky for me, ha. I had a number of synchronistic moments perusing the contents of the bookshelves at the Broodthaers Society. I had brought some of my own literature, too, and started drafting a reflection about past circumstances in which I found myself ‘demoralized’ and in a kind of second state outside of society's terms. And had resigned myself to it.
“After further consideration, I'm not sure that what I had in mind to write about fits very well in the context of Laziness as a piece, at least not one to share publicly. Essentially it was going to be about the alienation that comes with being a hard drug addict, which I've experienced until pretty recently. The ‘work’ of maintaining an addiction became my life's work because the drug I indulged in—meth—empowered me to put art at the center of my life. But drugs eventually stop working. Too many years had passed dealing with the ups and downs of that cycle. Eventually doing meth was only about avoiding discomfort. It wasn't about giving up everything for my work anymore.
“So, while there is overlap and relevance to the topic of laziness in that struggle, I don't think now is the time to go into all that.”