The Afield

The Afield

"afield," adv. (from the OED online)

pronunciation:  ə’fild

2.

away from home, abroad; to or at a distance; Also fig. and in figurative contexts  

(b) In far (also farther, farthest) afield.

 b. Away from one's subject; astray. Freq. to lead afield.

The Afield is a multidisciplinary collaboration between violinist Rebecca Fischer (Chiara String Quartet) and visual artist and writer Anthony Hawley. Combining new and original compositions for violin, voice, and electronics with video and other media, the Afield has premiered projects at National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, The Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, KANEKO, the North Dakota Museum of Art, and elsewhere. In October 2020, Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn presented their project X-Agent Destroy Monster Regimes, an immersive installation and performance work produced with text and redactions from The Mueller Report.

We like the idea of being "afield,"--off the usual track and beaten path; wandering farther afield, beyond borders, beyond the area of one's "subject."

We are all for wandering into uncharted territory...into other knowledge.

Thus, "the afield," those things, zones, and people we cultivate. 

First-violinist of the Chiara String Quartet for eighteen years until the group’s final season in 2018, Rebecca Fischer recorded and performed numerous works by heart, held residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Harvard University, and premiered many major new works by composers such as Philip Glass and Gabriela Lena Frank. Performance highlights include the complete Bartók Quartets by heart at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, several complete Beethoven quartet cycles, and collaborations with such artists as the Juilliard and Saint Lawrence Quartets, Roger Tapping, Robert Levin, and the electronic duo Matmos. Ms. Fischer has recorded for Azica Records (the complete string quartets of Brahms and Bartók) and New Amsterdam Records (the string quartets of Jefferson Friedman, a Grammy-nominated album). She currently teaches violin and chamber music at the Mannes School of Music where she co-chairs the strings department and at Greenwood Music Camp, of which she is the Executive Director. Ms. Fischer holds degrees from Columbia University (B.A.) and The Juilliard School (M.M., A.D.). Her writing on artistry and creativity has been published in Strings Magazine, and her first book of personal essays The Sound of Memory: Themes from a Violinist’s Life was published in the spring of 2022 by the Ohio State University Press.

Anthony Hawley is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. His art has won him residencies and awards from the MacDowell Colony, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, VCCA, and Arte Studio Ginistrelle, among others. He has exhibited and performed solo projects in venues nationally and internationally including Lubov Gallery, NY; Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA; Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City, MO; Central Features Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, NM; the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process Series, et al. In April 2016, “Fault Diagnosis”—a five-day multimedia event centering around a 1985 Nissan Pulsar NX—was produced by CounterCurrent in partnership with the Menil Collection and Aurora Picture Show in Houston, Texas. He is the author of two collections of poetry, and his essays and poems have appeared in numerous publications including Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Frieze, Hyperallergic, The Paris Review, Denver Quarterly, Verse, and Colorado Review.  Born in 1977, Anthony Hawley grew up in Massachusetts and was educated at Columbia University and the MFA Art Practice Program at the School of Visual Arts.