Back during the distinctly nasty winter months we’d all rather forget, students Rebecca Fordyce and Catherine Sinclair were out braving the elements in a rather unusual creative endeavour.

Inspired by a TLC course they’d taken on ‘installation performance’, the women came up with a bold goal – to one day exhibit together at the Michael Hirschfeld Gallery (at the City Gallery). In the meantime, they needed to gain some experience to strengthen their proposal, so they began brainstorming ideas for a performance work they could do in the short term. This led to the idea of painting each other’s portraits in public over a select period of time – to be, in effect, both artist and model simultaneously. The site – outside the entrance to the City Gallery – was chosen to inspire them towards their future goal.

Specifically, the performance, entitled Portrait of an Artist, ran every Friday from 25 July to 5 September. Catherine and Rebecca would arrive at Civic Square and assemble their easels, drawing and painting equipment and proceed to draw or paint the other artist for 30 minutes in total silence. Stage 2 student Tim Hackett documented the progress of each artist’s work every 10 minutes for a 30 minute duration. The artists then packed up and left, returning the next week to continue their pieces. The resulting documentary photographs will go on display at The Learning Connexion’s end of year exhibition.

The project proved challenging and provided many defining moments and lessons. “As an artist, your creative process usually goes unseen by your public. This performance challenged us to let go and do what we do,” says Rebecca. “Initially there was a struggle between creating for yourself as you would behind closed doors and a feeling that the passerby wants to see something ‘realistic’ and to be entertained.”

And then there were the passerby comments which, as Rebecca pointed out, were either “very positive” or rather “odd”. In one instance, according to Rebecca, a gentleman walked up to Catherine and asked where the City Gallery was. Given the performance was silent Catherine couldn’t answer, so she smiled at him, at which time the man noticed the sign himself and said “thank you” and walked off. Another man approached Rebecca and said “Can you tell me the difference between functional art and fine art?” – a phrase he’d just read on a sign outside the City Gallery. Tim Hackett, the photographer, fortunately came to her assistance and explained that the artists were not speaking and took the man aside to discuss art. And, says Catherine, “A number of people came up and said “Who are you painting?” at which time we would smile and point our paintbrushes towards each other.”

Now that the performance is over, Catherine and Rebecca have had time to assess their experience. “We wouldn’t change anything about the performance, however we would add other forms of documentation to the performance such as video footage or written passerby comments which would give us more options for display later on,” said Rebecca. “We definitely recommend doing public performance or just working in public places if performance is not your thing. It makes you stand in what you are as an artist. You also learn to be comfortable in a public place and it eventually becomes like your own studio. Doing it with a friend or at the very least a support group/person gives you a peer group who understands and can feed back to you about your work. Taking a risk with a fellow artist also puts you both in a vulnerable place and strengthens your relationship,” she added.
Susan Knaap