Melons (At A Loss)

In Melons (At a Loss), a single-take video, Patty Chang narrates a monologue about an imagined cultural ritual of being given a commemorative plate of her deceased aunt, who passed due to breast cancer. She simultaneously attempts to perform cutting, deseeding, and eating a cantaloupe that is held inside her long-line bra, all the while balancing a plate on her head. The melon appears to be uncannily synonymous with Chang’s breast. Chang takes a serrated knife to slice it open in an act of self-mutilation. Eating the melon, then, is also a form of a cannibalistic devouring of the self. The gesture paired with an attempt to sustain the monologue of imagined ritual becomes a site of production for the construction of memory, narrative, and gender.

Melons (At A Loss) is presented alongside In Love as part of the March 2025 edition of e-flux Film’s series Staff Picks featuring Patty Chang.

For more information, contact program@e-flux.com.