ARTIST: PATRICIA DIART
Art Histories are highly curated presentations of an artists’ life’s work provided for appreciators today, scholars of tomorrow, and generations to come.
Patricia Diart has been presenting performances, installations, and conceptual works nationally and internationally since 2001. She has exhibited in the Bay Area at venues including The Lab, New Langton Arts, and the San Francisco Arts Commission. The SF Chronicle and The Star Tribune, Minneapolis published articles about her current art work, The Cape, in 2021 and 2022. Surreptitiously, she exhibited at The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Seattle Asian Art Museum, and SFMOMA amongst other established museums.
Internationally, Diart performed in Havana, Cuba, and exhibited in Berlin, and Saarbrücken, Germany as well as Slovenia. She has received awards from the Goethe Institute, San Francisco Arts Commission, and was waitlisted with the Djerassi Artist Residency. In 2021, she was selected by Kim Shuck, Poet Laureate, for Poem of the Day, San Francisco Public Library. Diart was born in France, grew up in Baltimore, and lives in San Francisco.
“I feel that I need stories to live, and yet, I know they are un-natural constructions. For me, making art is both an action and a residue, filled with strife, and utter abandon.”
COLLECTION: the cape
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Artist Statement
I go out into the world with my body, at times, with a sense of outrage. I use whatever materials I like to convey ideas, and feelings on the monumental and the stupid. From re-constructing a demolished kitchen, to carrying a piece of garbage, to embroidering a 12-foot confessional cape, I am not afraid to reveal disaster. Within the catastrophic, there is also the chance to repair. I feel that I need stories to live, and yet, I know they are un-natural constructions. For me, making art is both an action and a residue, filled with strife, and utter abandon.
This performance project was initiated after seeing the video of George Floyd’s murder. It was created during the pandemic, and has been ongoing since February, 2021. My cape is stitched with a letter to my father who was a white police officer in Baltimore. It is hand-embroidered. It tells of the domestic violence our family suffered while he was a cop. Though it is a personal letter, it is interwoven with various contexts that converge with civic conversations, and with some political events occurring right now and in the long history of America. The law enforcement system gave my father full power to act as he wished with impunity. In large part, because he wore a badge of law, he held immense reign over our lives. I have been traveling with my cape to police stations, city plazas, museums, and protests around the country, over 30 different sites thus far.
To read the letter stitched on the cape go to this link: https://thecape.substack.com/about
© Patricia Diart, Image from performance/kneel-in at Central Police Station, February 8th, 2021, from 3:00 – 5:00 pm. Dimensions: 12ft length x 8 ft wide. Wool cape with embroidery. Photograph by Chris Tuite.
ESSAY
February 8th, Central Police Station, 766 Vallejo Street, San Francisco. from 3:00 - 5:00 pm.
Written by Patricia Diart
“About an hour into my performance, a young woman arrived with a happy air about her almost skipping along. I thought she was off to a party. Ten minutes later, she was standing in front of me, tears welling up in her eyes. I felt helpless; unable to speak. Within seconds, she ran off and a surge of solemnity came over me.” - Patricia Diart
© Patricia Diart, Image from performance/ kneel-in at Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, April 15th, 2021, from 4:30 -7:30. Diart kneeled for three hours during a protest for the killing of Duante Wright. Photograph by Chris Tuite.
ESSAY
April 15th, Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, MN.
from 4:30 -7:30 p.m.
Written by Patricia Diart
“Getting from Loring Park to Brooklyn Center gave me some trepidation. I needed to catch two public transit buses alone in a city that was increasingly barricading itself from its own citizens. The news about police using tear gas, and rubber bullets was truly frightening. One protester had already lost his eye from a rubber bullet shot into his face. My photographer had bought a gas mask, and eye goggles. I was not prepared for the possibility of real physical harm.” - Patricia Diart
© Patricia Diart, Image from performance/kneel-in at the California’s state capital building, Sacramento, CA, August 17th, 2021, from 1:30 - 4:00. Diart kneeled for 2.5 hours inside and outside the Capital. Photograph by Chris Tuite.
ESSAY
August 17th, Sacramento State Capital, 1315 10th Street, Sacramento, California, from 1:30 – 4:00 pm.
Written by Patricia Diart
“A woman in a formal black dress walked into the rotunda with a white sheriff and they were both standing just to my right. I said, “Well, it’s not a photo-shoot.” She said, “Oh, it’s not?” I took a long breath in, and exhaled real slow. I said, “No, it’s a protest.” As soon as I said it, I regretted it, because it was more complicated than a protest. ” - Patricia Diart
COLLECTION: the RATE OF TRANSFER
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Artist Statement
I created a conceptual sculpture whose main component was the reconstruction of a demolished 1930’s kitchen and dinette. My attempt to piece it back together took place over a ten-week residency at the San Francisco Arts Commission gallery. The sculpture revealed a laborious and futile journey of trial and error.
© Patricia Diart, Rate of Transfer, Detail of Photomontage
STATEMENT
Written by Meg Shiffler, Gallery Director
"Patricia was a resident artist for ten weeks in our window installation space at the Grove Street site at the San Francisco Arts Commission. As pedestrians passed this highly visible space, they were able to witness her attempting to reconstruct a previously demolished kitchen from its own debris. In her work, she used performative-sculptural elements to address the paradoxical issues in urban habitats as they are shaped by loss, renewal, memory and death. She invited the public into the installation space as opportunities to aid, question, and discuss the project at length. The sculptural process exposed a haunting, yet humorous quality as the accumulation of her work revealed the impossibility of her endeavor. As she revealed the absurdist nature of this gesture, she transformed the artifacts of the kitchen into a site for meditation, vulnerability and beauty".
Click the video to watch the entire Performance Installation 10-week project at the San Francisco Arts Commission
COLLECTION: SLAG
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Artist Statement
After “the thing” was stolen in 2012, a criminal record ensued. The thief had been identified and I had a case number. Some weeks later, however, the D.A.’s office “disappeared” the case for unknown reasons. As a result, I created an animation. Below are the first two minutes of the film.
SLAG - An Animation by Patricia Diart
Click below to watch the 2 minute video (partial) of 6:37 animation
COLLECTION: daily life
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Artist Statement
In 2007, I’d found a round-shaped piece of detritus along the ocean near Fort Funston. It resembled a rock, meteor, popcorn, and even Ambergris. It remained nameless. I carried the object with me wherever I went for two years.
Daily Life Video (2012) - Performance by Patricia Diart
Filmed by Linda Ford and Tina Heringer
PRESS
Highlights Include:
She wore a cape to S.F. City Hall to protest police violence.
Then she got kicked out
Written by: Lily Janiak
Patricia Diart’s performance art piece “The Cape” includes a black cape with an embroidered letter to her policeman father, in which she describes abuse toward the family and the community. © Photo credit: Samantha Laurey / The Chronicle
With a 12-foot-long black cape, artist visits Minneapolis to confront injustice
Written by: Alicia Eler
© Artist Patricia Lien Diart kneeled near the Brooklyn Center Police Department, wearing a cape she stitched with a letter to her abusive father, a police officer.
A Kairotic Encouter at the Centre Pompidou,
with the Artist Patricia Diart
Written by: Léon Myshkine, Art Critic, Member of the AICA, Doctor of Philosophy, Independent Researcher
© Patricia Diart, Still from video at Trader Joe’s, 2010-2012
“Diart’s work creates a stunning visual narrative from her intensely personal statement against police brutality. Her poignant performances, writing, and visual artworks combine to create an important voice in search of our humanity.”
— Amie Potsic, Amie Potsic Art Advisory
Grand Prize Winner
The Kite Prize for Contemporary Art 2023
© Patricia Diart, Image from performance/kneel-in at San Francisco City Hall, March 2, 2022, San Francisco, CA, from 3:00 – 3:30 approximately. Photograph by Chris Tuite
© Patricia Diart, Image from performance/kneel-in at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, NY, September 30th, from 3:00 – 5:00 pm. Diart kneeled for 2 hours on the steps of the museum. Photograph by Reuben Radding
To contact Patricia Diart, email pdiart17@earthlink.net.
Click here to download Patricia Diart’s CV.
To learn more about the artist: thecape.substack.com/.
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