Living Paintings

Mass collaborative performance art project where people from all walks of life paint on primed canvases worn by participants on the streets of NYC.

What: 200 participants dressed as living paintings will go into the five boroughs of New York City and ask the general public to paint on them. The project will employ proven technology based on my Memory Replacement performances.
When: Future.
How Much: $200,000.
How Long: 1 day.
Where: Sidewalks and parks of New York City.
Who: Anyone can be a participant and anyone - the general public - can paint on the canvases.
Why: To turn passers-by into creators right there on the sidewalk.

Description

Living Paintings is a collaborative mass performance art project and the first public art project of its kind.

Two hundred people dressed in primed canvas wearables called wings will fan out from the World Trade Center site into the Five Boroughs as Living Paintings. The participants will be divided into 100 pairs each with a predetermined route through New York City. They will carry paints and brushes in specially designed canvas bags and ask the general public to paint on their garments. Each pair will replicate, along their route, the World Trade Center performance Mirena Rhee created in November 2018.

One Living Painting in a pair will also be the dedicated photographer and videographer for the pair and equipped with a smartphone.

The outcome of the project will be and an art blast of epic proportions and 200 paintings created collaboratively by thousands of people right on the sidewalk in New York City.

Initially, the project was meant to occur at the World Trade Center site however the possibility of getting the project boggled down in permissions battles made the artist change their mind into using the outskirts of the location as a starting point. In addition, when creating her Memory Replacement World Trade Center performance the artist felt the solemnity of the place doesn’t need to be interrupted by a mass performance.

Every aspect of the project has been tested in smaller scale by the artist in various previous works, from the materials that will be used and logistics to the design of the garments, and the canvas bag containing the brushes and paints.

Statement

I want to turn people into creators right there on the sidewalk. Drawing on my experience from 15 past performances.

Living Paintings embodies my vision for art for the betterment of humankind to build a creative civilization. A creative collaboration with people from all walks of life, with everyone-creator at its center, a throwback to the ideas of the Renaissance for human-centered and humanistic art.

I have found that people get down to painting as if they have been waiting all their lives to do it, on the way to get groceries, while walking the dog, or exploring the city. Locals, tourists, bankers, kids, and people from all walks of life, ages, backgrounds, and races, all throw themselves at painting, some even cry or hang out to paint for hours. It is the incredible power of art and the rush of adrenaline when you become a creator right there in the moment, without any warning.

In daily life in the big city we usually encounter hectic mundanity, busyness with important matters like making a living, and especially violence.

Living Paintings will be an art statement against violence, and especially gun violence in the United States. We will draw brushes and our holsters will hold paints.

Living Paintings will bring light to dark places. It is a stand against the war machine, the gun machine, and the handbags machines which detract us from developing a great civilization. It is the stand against the useless possessions and souls draining activities machine. It will be an inoculation against the loss of all of our humanity machine.

Living Paintings is the weapon against the war machine, the handbag machine, the couch machine, the gender machine, the ethnic division machine, against the stereotypes and stereotypers machine, against all kinds of weapons machine, against the soulless machine. Against the greed and I could never have enough machine.

Imagine an art blast originating at the World Trade Center Memorial Site but instead of destruction, it will create beauty and creativity in its path as it spreads out into the boroughs. Where there was dust and gray there will be color and light, where there was sadness there will be laughter and joy. The wearables are called Wings because they will carry this one message:

We draw brushes and our holsters hold paints. We don't want to be replaced but we want to be changed. The soft touch of a wing, The light touch of a brush, and a light stroke. The word of a friend, the whisper of a soft fold on a wing. A nod to a future with beauty, a reflection on color, and a gesture of goodness and friendship. A soft stand against violence. 

Budget

Total: $200,000.
Materials: ~$20,000.
Labor: ~$67,000.

Here is the latest detailed budget document.

History, inspiration and influences

The project has been continuously on the Artist’s mind since 2011 and in its current form since 2017. It is inspired by the events of 9/11, the 9/11 works by artist Ultra Violet, the performances of Marina Abramović and large scale urban interventions of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Of course in large part inspired by New York City and its street visual culture, including street performance, eccentric costumes and dress, and graffiti.

Living Paintings draws on the artist’s previous performances and collaborations with the general public in New York City like White Room, Memory Replacement Election Day, Memory Replacement World Trade Center, Xquisite Corpse and Figment.

Most recently while creating a canvas wearable for a performance artist for White Room, the artist stumbled on a successful design and logistics for a canvas wearable on the move, carrying canvas bag design and the idea that each pair Living Paintings will greatly benefit from dedicated photography and videography.

Work in Progress - sketches, drawings and animations

Sketches and Animations.

Inspiration sketches for Living Paintings I created in Tilt Brush.