New Territories: Interview with Patty Chang

The New York-based artist Patty Chang has been making daring forays in performance art since the late 1990s. In Eels (1999), she captivated viewers onscreen, appearing to be somewhere between throws of ecstasy and pain—but irreducible to neither—later attributing this to the live eels that filled her blouse and wriggled uncontrollably against her skin. In another work, Chang came uncomfortably close to incest by making chewing movements against the lips of her own parents. Teetering precariously between humor and embarrassment, Chang’s early works push the body to its limits, alluding to the fluidity of identity by confounding any attempt at characterization. In the past few years, the artist has left her performance practice for documentary filmmaking and, along with her partner, David Kelley, begun composing narratives that delicately explore a nuanced dialogue between the East and West through the interweaving of fact and fiction. Over email, Chang discussed this shift with ArtAsiaPacific, sharing some insights on her latest projects.

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