Figure, Painting
1224 W Loyola Ave, Chicago IL
May 18, 2024
Re-enactment at 4 PM with performer Tara Aisha Willis and cornetist Ben Lamar Gay
Figure, Painting took place in 1983 at The Storefront in San Francisco and at The Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City with cornetist Lawrence "Butch" Morris. Seated in the window, the artist followed a script and painted herself with wide brushes in colors inspired by the early 1920’s Fauvist palette of expressionist Alexej Jawlensky (1864–1941): red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. In a choreography of stylized gestures, she applied each color to her body, which was then contrasted, complemented, or obliterated by the next.
The “figure” in Figure, Painting became the painter as well as the painting.
––Sandra Binion
This event is one of a series of re-enactments as a part of Sandra Binion: Autobiography of Looking at Experimental Sound Studio from April 12 to June 9, 2024. The image above is documentation of Sandra Binion performing "Figure, Painting," at The Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City with cornetist, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, 1983. Photo credit Toyo Tsuchiya.