the mock-up below is a concept sketch for the "documentary painting project" i've begun to develop recently. i wanted to conceive of painting that was decidedly documentary, but at home with its stark differences with transient, material-based performances. in other words, it would reveal how documentation, if it's done right, is really it's own thing entirely. i don't mean to sever the ties to the original performance piece, but rather that there's really no way i can create an appropriate document for it. it's led me to consider how i'd paint a video still, say. more later...
but fear.... one of the inspirations behind Painting Complex was the tower of babel, which, for all of you not up on your biblical studies, was a tower meant to be so tall that it reached god. god became offended and gave humanity chaos as punishment. the chaos was different languages, leaving people unable to communicate with each other. i don't know if the tower actually crumbled, but it seems like it should have. in any case, this seemed to me a perfect metaphor for human ambition gone too far.
countless examples throughout history could also be invoked. any once great civilization that has gone into ruin, and left behind actual ruins. inevitable collapse, death, suffering has always been very difficult for me to reconcile. i think one reason why this piece worked was my introduction of play for issues otherwise so weighty. my use of paint made my actions even more inevitably ruinous, which compelled me to be even more urgent (uh-oh...this is going to go south fast, so i better get as much splattering done as i can. come on! go! aggghh! paint in my eye! no time to stop! go go go!!!). i think this kept the piece from being an act of self-destruction.
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