Patty Chang

(San Francisco, 1972)

Visual artist trained at the California University of Fine Arts and the Venice Academy of Fine Arts. In her performances she intertwines “body art” and “postfeminism” of the late 90s. Her work explores the physical-social construction of the body, rethinking its limits and capabilities. It confronts stereotypes in relation to the body and behavior of women, emphasizing a visibility of a violent nature, which allows it to highlight the denunciation of the roles imposed and rooted in the construction of female identity. The female body is a body subject to effort and restriction. In his imagination he fuses his corporeality with food and the erotic and metaphorical become confused. In his works, Chang usually addresses the issue of pathological behavior, such as uncontrolled gluttony, as a violent reaction to the ideal of beauty that society dictates and promotes.

She presents her performance Melons (At a Loss) at Medialab Madrid, an act of self-mutilation, cutting the cup of an oversized bra that the artist has put on as a breast substitute, thus discovering half a melon inside. Then, little by little, he empties the melon with his hand and piles the seeds on a plate that he balances on his head. While eating the pulp, she tells the story of a relative who died of breast cancer. Through the use of food, Chang presents the different ways in which memory interprets, consumes and transforms an event.