Performance Painting

Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin NZ — 2008

Where performance art usually centres on the artist in the act of doing or making, or relies on mechanical and digital devices, Gatfield's project Performance Painting advances independently - beyond the making, through the artwork's internal operating system. In an underground exhibition for the 2008 Dunedin Performance Art Festival, the art objects relied on internal energy systems, with or without the care and attention of gallery visitors. The magnetic Prick hovered and shimmered in the spotlight while the wall-hung live grass canvas Lawn (Otago) grew upwards, appealing for light in the dark.