Diana Baker Smith and Kelly Doley
In Search of Pat Larter
2017
Single Channel HD Video
13:39 minutes

In Search of Pat Larter engages with the life and legacy of Australian artist Pat Larter. While best known as the ‘muse’ to her husband, Larter was also one of the leading figures in the international mail art movement, and created an extensive number of performances, films and photographs from the 1970s up until her death in 1996. Through a performative video essay, Baker Smith and Doley reactivate Larter’s work in the archive and on the screen. They move between the physical spaces of the Pat Larter Archive at the Art Gallery of NSW and the recording studio, where they read out a series of letters to the late artist and to each other. These gestures are intercut with excerpts from Larter’s films (made in collaboration with Richard Larter) as well as images from her performances and mail art. As Baker Smith and Doley search through Larter’s extensive archive, they contemplate the difficulties associated with revisiting ephemeral art practices and the gender politics of artistic labour that structures art history.

Work Credits
Videography and Video Editing: Kate Blackmore
Sound and Original Music: Andrew McLellan

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In Search of Pat Larter was first presented at The Public Body 0.2at Artspace in Sydney.

Texts
Call and Response: A Dialogue on Collaboration with/for Pat Larter
Diana Baker Smith and Kelly Doley
Un Magazine 12.2. Spring, 2018.

Porno Parody: In Search of Pat Larter
Diana Baker Smith and Kelly Doley
Runway Magazine, Issue 29, 2016.