Katherine Bull transform through creativity

For this performance I set up a specially designed easel and canvas-apron in the courtyard of Smith Studio Gallery. My role was to inhabit the canvas with a blindfold covering my eyes and a bluetooth headset in my ears. I then painted in response to sound selected by the visitors to the exhibition. Two assistants, Gabrielle Kruger and Adrian Ranger helped to facilitate and record the visitors’ engagement.
Visitors to the First Thursday event were prompted by Adrian and a card that asked visitors to take a moment to listen to themselves and use what comes up to prompt an online search for a sound track/clip that expressed what they heard. Once selected the person could listen to the sound on wifi headphones with me while the next person selected the following track/clip. My intention was to create an intimate moment of communication between myself and each of the visitors who chose to take part amongst the noise and bustle of the First Thursday crowd. The visitor’s ‘voice’ communicated through the sound they selected and my reply to be seen as the visual action of painting on the canvas. Gabrielle recorded each sound selected and the colour I chose in response for each track onto the glass of the courtyard space. So the rest of the audience could only access the sound through the text on the glass and my painting actions.

Thank you to Paris Brummer, Martin Kruger and David Smith for documenting the performance.

The Playlist of Sound selected & colour chosen:

1. ABBA (blue)
2. The Only Way is Up - Martin Gartix (blue)
3. CRUNKS - We Are Ready - Archie Eversole (brown)
4. HOPE - There’s Hope - India Arie (yellow)
5. El Pescador -Toto La Momposina (Green & Yellow)
6. Viennese Waltz - Johan Strauss (yellow ochre)
7. Jesus Alone - Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (purple)
8. I can’t get no satisfaction - Rolling Stones (white)
9. Portrait of Tracy - Jaco Pastorius (red coral)
10. Rio - Netsky (grape purple)
11. Human - The Killers (green oil stick & green)
12. Sound & Vision - David Bowie (Leaf Green)
13. Friday I’m in Love - Cure (red)
14. Noctuary - Bonobo (reddish purple)
15. System of a Down - B.Y.O.B (black)
16. Not My Love - Tides of Man (Electric Green)
17. Bad Blood - Taylor Swift (Green & Black oil sticks)
18. What a Day - Greg Casswell (dark purple)
19. Sex Machine - James Brown (red stick)
20. Between Enclosures - Aqua (blue)
21. Prelude Cello Suite No 1. - Bach (green stick)
22. Acid Rain - Lorn (turquoise)
23. Lofi hip hop - radio (sunflower yellow & brown stick)
24. Cat Mouse - Ryuichi Sakamoto The Revenant soundtrack (coral red)
25. Untrust Us - Crystal Castles (orange?)
26. Blood in the Cut - Flay (white)
27. Sophia So Far - Midnight Radio (leaf green)
28. Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (dark green & yellow stick)
29. Strawberry Swing - Coldplay (grape purple)
30. Before I fall - Bob Moses (coral red)
31. Its so different here - Rachel Sweet (yellow stick & red)
32. Hello Operator - White Stripes (turquoise)
33. Sounds of Silence - Disturbed (cloth)
34. Where is my mind - Pixies (yellow & blue stick)
35. Ambulance - TV on the Radio (yellow)
36. Sprawl II - Arcade Fire (black)
37. All Night - Beyonce (purple)
38. Stranger in Paradise - Andrea Bocelli (coral red)
39. Cucurucu - Nick Mulvey (red & red stick)
40. Octopus Garden - The Beatles (blue & yellow)
41. Dong Dong Thing - Felix Leland (red stick)
42. Last Thoughts of Woody Guthry - Bob Dylan (red)
43. Marianne - Leonard Cohen (sunflower yellow)
44. I’m Still Standing - Elton John (electric green)
45. Donald Trump Inauguration Speech (purple)
46. P.D.A - John Legend (turquoise)
47. Bella - Jovanotti (aqua blue)
48. I’m too sexy - Right Said Fred (yellow)
49. Moon Landing… (black stick)
50. Spinning the Wheel - George Michael (peachy pink)
51. Pohlease - Kamau (dark green)
52. Mycose - La Femme (white)
53. Metio - Gael Fage (green & white)
54. Marrow - St. Vincent (blue & yellow stick)
55. Adios Nonino - Astor Piazzolla (?)
56. The Prayer - Celine Dion & Andrea Bocelli (bright green)
57. Another Day of Sun - La la Land soundtrack (peachy pink)
58. Take on Me - AHA (white & blue stick)
59. How Much a Dollar Cost - Kendrick Lamar (red)
60. Beach - Axel Floveut (coral red)