Painter is a performance by Paul McCarthy, he is building the narrative of an Artist in their studio. The performance takes place on a set; one artist studio is on the left, the other artist studio is on the right. McCarthy passes between these two spaces, using paints and other props as a way to communicate.
I enjoy how in Painter McCarthy plays on dark humour to create the atmosphere of an artist attempting to create an immaculate and perfect piece of art work, but is doomed to fail due to his own [ridiculously high] expectation of what art should be and look like. To me, this performance creates a paradigm between the reality of the working artist and the outsiders point of view of the working artist; the fact that artists live and breathe their work, and sometimes this can be both meditative and self-destructive.
I feel like this performance brings together two of my main key interests; language and gesture. As there is little verbal communication it's mainly movement and gesture that tells the narrative - it makes me realise that language isn't essential within performance and that objects themselves play a key part in how we understand the plot, setting and character.
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