P. Staff

P. Staff makes film installations, performance art, and new media works Writer and filmmaker Juliet Jacques describes Staff's site-specific exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries, “On Venus,” as the following: “Staff’s site-specific exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, ‘On Venus’, deals with biopolitics, looking at the ways in which exchanges between bodies, ecosystems and institutions affect human consciousness and behaviours – especially for queer, trans and non-binary people. A new video work also entitled On Venus, features two sections: the first presents warped archival footage of industrial farming for the production of meat, fur and hormones; the second features a poem about life on the uninhabitable planet Venus, conjuring a state of near-death that has parallels with trying to survive as a queer person in a heteronormative world. The surrounding installation impinges on the gallery itself, confronting entrants with a gargoyle weathered by acidic rain, a symbol of the worsening climate crisis, harshly lit against a reflective floor. The defamiliarizing effect of Staff's intervention rubs up against the history of the building, which was originally used as a gunpowder store. Pipes suspended from the ceiling leak acid into steel barrels, at once evoking chemical corrosion, the sharing of bodily fluids, and the uncontrollable, networked spread of viruses and data.” (Wikipedia) ...

Chisenhale Gallery is dedicated to placing artists at the core of its mission. They have supported the realisation of major works by an international array of artists, often solidifying careers through timely solo commissions, notably including Lubaina Himid, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cornelia Parker, Faisal Abdu’Allah, Hito Steyerl, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Yu Ji, Abbas Akhavan, Rachel Jones and Rory Pilgrim. Chisenhale Gallery was founded by artists. The same experimental vision and spirit of possibility that transformed an empty veneer factory and brewery warehouse into an art gallery continues to guide their work today. They commission and produce contemporary art, publish books and online material, and actively engage in social projects. ...