NO HARD FEELINGS
In October 2021, Carsel departed from Chicago for Ukraine. However, their leave-taking had already commenced, the COVID-19 pandemic having kept friends and the city itself at a distance for much of the preceding year and a half. NO HARD FEELINGS is a series of embroidered textiles built out of the grief and joy in this closing of one chapter and beginning of another.
The installation was presented in homage to Chicago, to the distant (and soon-to-be-distant) loved ones, and to the culture of diaspora into which Carsel was born. They say that Jews are always saying goodbye but never leaving, lingering in the moment that is about to end because, often, in one way or another, there is no going back. In NO HARD FEELINGS, Carsel sought to hone the craft of lingering, creating keepsakes out of a few of the goodbyes that it would otherwise take them the rest of their life to finish.
NO HARD FEELINGS (2021) (detail). Embroidery on onionskin-, flower-, and acid-dyed cotton, dimensions variable. Exhibition view: 2021 Terrain Biennial, Evanston. 
NO HARD FEELINGS (2021) (detail). Embroidery on onionskin-, flower-, and acid-dyed cotton, dimensions variable. Exhibition view: 2021 Terrain Biennial, Evanston.
NO HARD FEELINGS (2021) (detail). Embroidery on onionskin-, flower-, and acid-dyed cotton, dimensions variable. Exhibition view: 2021 Terrain Biennial, Evanston.
NO HARD FEELINGS (2021) (detail). Embroidery on onionskin-, flower-, and acid-dyed cotton, dimensions variable. Exhibition view: 2021 Terrain Biennial, Evanston.
