Patrick Stochmal

Next of Kin (Will and Testament)

(I come from places of intimate encounters that are hidden... I am the next-of-kin that always reside in places and bodies often overlooked, whispering intimacies that fade into the background but become conditions for being)Collecting and transforming materials from sites of personal, intimate queer encounters in secluded forests within my suburban hometown, this artwork plays with genealogical logics and examines capitalist systems of ownership and distribution that structure political economies of being. Over time various molds, microbes and bacteria from the sites/collected materials, my body, my domestic space, etc. indeterminately inscribe, metabolize and proliferate upon this speculative legal document, constituting my will and testament in the inevitable absence of my human (biological) next-of-kin. The dimensions of the display structure correspond to a standardized measurement of horizontal grave markers (length x width).