Opening hours
Gallery: Wednesday to Sunday 12–5pm
Title: Weed Killer
Year: 2017
Format: Single screen video projection
Audio: Stereo
Duration: 16 minutes, 49 seconds
Spike Film and Video are proud to have been involved in the production of a new film, Weed Killer by artist Patrick Staff, commissioned by Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Patrick Staff, a Spike Island alumni artist, presented his video installation Weed Killer (2017) at The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA) from 12 March to 3 July 2017. The work is 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 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.
Patrick Staff (b.1987, Bognor Regis) lives and works in London and Los Angeles. They have exhibited extensively, gaining significant recognition and awards for their work which is held in private and public collections internationally. Staff received their BA in Fine Art and Contemporary Critical Studies from Goldsmiths University of London in 2009. They completed the LUX Associate Artists Programme and studied Contemporary Dance at The Place in London, in 2011. Their work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2017); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2017); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2016); Serpentine Galleries (2015); Chisenhale Gallery (2015); Tate Liverpool (2014); Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles (2012); Tate Modern (2012), and Whitstable Biennale (2012), among others.
Opening Hours