Patrick Stochmal
'Till Death Do Us Part
Sculpture
2023
Hydrosol composed of distilled leaf litter, rotting logs, dirt, wild mold and saprophytic fungi from sites of personal intimate queer encounters, urine from the queer bodies of myself and my partner formulated into a nourishing body and face cream, amber glass cosmetic jars, microbes and bacteria, MDF
(Gently rub a dollop of cream into your skin... feel it permeate your body as it feeds other bodies that may not be yours in the singular, but perhaps in the plural)Using queer bodily excretions and distillations of site-specific decayed and deteriorated matter as speculative modes of territorializing negation and annihilation, these creams assess logics of (self)care through ideologies of the self and its reproductive maintenance. A lack of preservatives added to the body/face creams renders them susceptible to mold and bacterial contamination - it is this promise of contamination, or the threat thereof, through which some queer negations may perhaps be unearthed as contingent mutations (a reproduction emerging through the sometimes hidden intimacies of our permeable embodiments). An image of the distillation set-up is included below the artwork documentation for reference.
Work by
Patrick Stochmal
Sculpture/Installation
“Coming from places of intimate encounters that are hidden (laying beneath dirt and logs, caressing the underbellies of upturned leaves, gleaming forth from detritus that does not belong) our queer...” [More]