Chewing Gum for the Social Body

by Patrick Staff

presented at The Tanks at Tate Modern on 26th October 2012

Chewing Gum for the Social Body is a new performance by Patrick Staff for The Tanks using live video, projection and sound-mapping. The performance continues the artist’s interest in the investigation of the political, physical and material implications of social spaces, collectively produced film and video and improvised dance. Working closely with a group of performers in workshops, the performance initiates a ‘collapsed’ use of equipment; the dancers performing for, with and against the cameras, sound and projection. Chewing Gum for the Social Body interrogates what is produced and reproduced amongst a group working together and the spatial and performative limits of production, reproduction, image and documentation. This interrogation is ultimately underpinned by questioning togetherness in the present political moment and what energy can be sustained in shared spaces of action and struggle.