Defacing | 2008
To invite the visitors of a given exhibition to be part of a performance where they erase a given drawing and build a new piece of art credited to the artist and the public who helped finishing it.
First Stage - Production
This project had two stages, it starts with the production of large-scale portraits using charcoal on canvas as medium and having the following dimensions: 94 1/2 x 79 inches. The drawings-paintings will show world dictators like Aleksandr Lukashenko, Hugo Chávez, Mao Zedong, Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, François Duvalier, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, Pervez Musharraf, Omar al-Bashir, Robert Mugabe, Benito Mussolini, Than Shwe, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others...
Second Stage - Exhibition and Visitor Finishing :
Following the production of the first stage, the second stage will be an exhibition of the large scale drawings in a non-for profit public place, i.e. a college or university, where visitors can have an allotted time of thirty seconds to deface the artwork with white acrylic paint using a one inch brush. In doing so the visitors will create a newly finished artwork that the artist will have no control over. A time-lapse video of the work will be produced in progress during the exhibition. At this time, please refer to the following paragraph to see the 'before' and 'after' of two large-scale drawings defaced by my family members.
Family Proof
I used my family as an experiment to find out how the visitors will react to images I have chosen and to know if anyone with no art education can finish my artwork. My family loved the idea after they finished doing the defacing... but before they did it... they wanted to kill me for doing these images that bring so many bad memories. I saw the reaction from my family members go from anger towards the artist of the icons to exaltation while erasing the drawings to the alleviation of anger and frustration that left them at ease.
End Results
This project’s exhibition will allow the viewer to interact with the artwork in an unusual museum-gallery environment. This project calls for true social interaction between the art community and the public. This idea is set up to question the finished artwork not being done by the artist, the role of art... the artist and the viewer-participant. I happen to think that the finished defaced artwork is more mesmorizing than the original.
Tour
25-12-2007 Familly Proof10-10-2008 Che & Castro
14-05-2009 Not welcome
Artist :
Pablo Gonzalez-Trejo