Autobiography (2023) | 11:41
Autobiography is a memento mori in paint in which an anonymous hand uses a wooden stir stick to slowly blend pure white paint (birth) into a progressively black mixture (death). The intent was to structure time with painting process to create a variegated, ever-changing abstraction. The video is shown in negative image and contains an original, ethereal soundtrack.
Special thanks to Tom Bartlett and Bob Beck.
The Morality of Paint: Erfurt Window (2008) | 5:57
The temporary Holocaust monument The Morality of Paint: Erfurt Window employed grisaille action painting on the inside glazing of glassbox, a repurposed prefab modernist bookstore built during Erfurt’s years as part of Communist East Germany. As a painted work on glass created in the spirit of the magic lantern slide, Erfurt Window conflated static and memorializing brush strokes with actual views of the adjoining landscape, which includes a modern city, a university founded in 1392, an array of medieval buildings, and the nearby Buchenwald concentration camp.
Special thanks to Lelah Ferguson and Dr. Kai-Uwe Schierz.
Brigus Mark, Brigus, Newfoundland (2007) | 2:18
Brigus Mark was comprised of four litres of Matchless® Mariner black enamel paint willfully applied on July 12, 2007 to an exposed slab of grey siltstone on the barrenlands overlooking Brigus Bay, Newfoundland. As a performative gesture in which the artist sought to “undermine the picturesque,” this work paid homage to The Dictionary of Newfoundland English which includes an ominous definition of ‘mark’ as a “sign, portent.”
Special thanks to Marissa Tombs, Susan M. Ross, Phil Rose, Landfall Trust, The Rooms, and Canada Council for the Arts.