Video installation, digital; custom-made wooden benches
Candice Breitz’s TLDR is a musical of sorts, but also a portrait of a community of sex workers who live and work in Cape Town. In the first room of the installation, a 12-year-old boy occupies the central screen of a three-channel projection. Recalling a true story from the recent past, he evokes an ideological battle that pitted feminists against feminists, and human rights organization Amnesty International against an awkward coalition of Hollywood actresses and sex-work abolitionists. Delivered with the frankness of a child, the dramatic tale underscores the high stakes motivating the struggle of sex workers for basic human rights. A Greek chorus composed of sex workers animates the story as it unfolds. In a second room, 10 intimate documentary interviews archive the experiences and views of the same sex workers. A sequel to Breitz’s Love Story (2016), TLDR reflects on the relationship between whiteness, privilege, and visibility; and on the shrinkage of attention spans within an information economy that fetishizes celebrity and entertainment. Pointing a finger at itself, the work bluntly asks whether and how artists living privileged lives can meaningfully represent marginalized communities.
