HAND TO MOUTH, PATTY CHANG, 2000
Hand To Mouth, 2000, 6 minutes, Super 8 film transferred to video
“Hand to Mouth”, a video from 2000, was made before Chang extended her vocabulary beyond the performance oriented explorations of her own body. In the video, she appears clad in a simple business suit, cheering encouragingly while simultaneously swallowing water and helium squished into her mouth by an invisible performer outside the picture frame. Chang’s increasingly ecstatic performance, her fueling of the invisible person’s actions, turns the simple act into a hysterically funny and deeply disturbing experience at once. (Vielmetter)