Krystle Patel
‘not’, 2022
Collaged digital and found footage, original and sampled recording, stereo.
14 min 36 sec
Edition of 5 + 1 A.P.
Courtesy of Punta & Posta, cable depot and the artist
‘not’ presents as a video essay or manifesto. It was made as a direct response to the artist’s frustrations with contemporary art and the institutional expectation of artists of colour. Having viewed diversity initiatives and the contemporary obsession with individualism and identity politics as oppressive and cloaked in violence, the film intentionally uses personal material, art history and theory, music and Bollywood film to present a weblike glossary functioning at the level of language presenting it, alongside identity, as mutable but connected.
Krystle Patel
‘your body is fragranced’, 2023
Collaged digital and found footage, archival material, b&w/colour super 8, original and sampled recording, stereo
05 min 49 sec
Edition of 5 + 1 A.P.
Courtesy of Punta & Posta, cable depot and the artist
‘your body is fragranced’ investigates the porous potential of embodied knowledge through ways dance and ritualistic forms of movement offer entry points to unknown cultures. Echoing Maya Deren’s time in Haiti, the film follows a European contemporary dancer’s thoughts as she describes a trance like experience and perceived connection with an online deity after repeatedly performing to a song via YouTube. Questioning how far movement can transcend societal boundaries, the film probes intersections between desire, performativity and permission — the vital space of ritualistic or religious possession.
Krystle Patel is a London-based Asian artist born in Texas. She uses writing, sound and textile to create moving image works and site-specific installations that interrogate the construction and value of relationships through language. She gained a degree in Dentistry and has recently completed her MFA at Goldsmiths University. Krystle was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, has had work acquired for the Government Art Collection and was the artist in residence at the Institute of Neurology at UCL. She has worked with The Florence Trust, Cubitt, Lux and South London Gallery as well as radio residencies with Aaja radio and RTM FM. Upcoming projects include work with Biblioteka, The Architectural Association, Offsite and Forma.
For Immaterial Salon 2024 Punta Gallery presents a co-curated online project by Cable Depot. Based on two works by Krystle Patel about belonging and fragmentation, Cable Depot adumbrates some of the same associations one involuntarily must have with Downey’s edition of the American First Lady. Patel is a London based Asian artist, born in Texas who interrogates the construction and value of relationships through language. She is currently working towards a residency at Cable Depot and has held rehearsals and a performance event in the gallery in 2024.
POSTA and PUNTA are two sister spaces in the center of Sofia, founded in 2021. For the past three years, POSTA & PUNTA have established their voice on the local gallery scene, showcasing projects by local and international artists. POSTA is a gallery, situated in a showcase window with exhibitions to only be viewed from the street. PUNTA is a project space just a block away, that focuses on installative and deconstructed art, generally kept off the walls, that through the use of somewhat subversive aesthetics, media and approaches, provides artists with a carte blanche for extensive artistic experimentation.