Jason Koxvold

“Knives” is an elegy for American manufacturing made over several years, using photography to trace the shifting relationships between masculinity, myth, and violence in a rural town whose economic base, eviscerated by globalisation, is now supported by the prison industrial complex.

The project operates as two intertwined stories: one, a typological study of knives crafted in the region since the rise of the cutlery industry 150 years ago, provides connective tissue to the other, which deals in the realities of the local community. The project serves as a microcosm of the larger issues facing the United States, grappling with the effects of automation and outsourcing, cuts in services, and the rise of identity politics. The book includes an essay by artist and critic Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa.

Jason Koxvold (b. 1977, Liege, Belgium) received his BSc in Social Science from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 2000. His fine art practice focuses on the shared spaces between neoliberal economic policy and military strategy; he has made work in diverse locations, from Afghanistan to Nigeria, Arctic Russia to South Africa. His first monograph, Knives, was published in 2017.

Koxvold has exhibited in the United Stated, Britain, France, and Japan. His work has been featured in publications including the Financial Times Magazine, Wired, Newsweek, Aperture, Mashable, National Geographic, Der Greif, Gestalten, Thisispaper, The Great Leap Sideways, Mother Jones, and Slate.

He currently lives and works in Upstate NY and Brooklyn.

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