Patrick Staff
12 Mar - 03 Jul 2017
Patrick Staff: Weed Killer, Installation view
courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
photo by Zak Kelley
courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
photo by Zak Kelley
PATRICK STAFF
Weed Killer
12 March – 3 July 2017
Curator: Lanka Tattersall
Curatorial Assistant: Hana Cohn
Patrick Staff: Weed Killer is the premiere of a MOCA-commissioned video installation by Patrick Staff. Staff’s newest work was inspired by artist-writer Catherine Lord’s memoir The Summer of Her Baldness (2004)—a moving and often irreverent account of the author’s experience of cancer. At the heart of Weed Killer (2017) is a monologue—adapted from Lord’s moving and often irreverent book—in which an actress reflects upon the chemically induced devastation of chemotherapy. This monologue is intertwined with comparatively otherworldly sequences, including choreographic gestures shot with high-definition thermal imaging. Presented as an immersive installation, Weed Killer suggests a complex relationship to one’s own suffering and draws into focus the fine line between alternately poisonous and curative substances.
Weed Killer
12 March – 3 July 2017
Curator: Lanka Tattersall
Curatorial Assistant: Hana Cohn
Patrick Staff: Weed Killer is the premiere of a MOCA-commissioned video installation by Patrick Staff. Staff’s newest work was inspired by artist-writer Catherine Lord’s memoir The Summer of Her Baldness (2004)—a moving and often irreverent account of the author’s experience of cancer. At the heart of Weed Killer (2017) is a monologue—adapted from Lord’s moving and often irreverent book—in which an actress reflects upon the chemically induced devastation of chemotherapy. This monologue is intertwined with comparatively otherworldly sequences, including choreographic gestures shot with high-definition thermal imaging. Presented as an immersive installation, Weed Killer suggests a complex relationship to one’s own suffering and draws into focus the fine line between alternately poisonous and curative substances.