[Sound+Vision] — Watch the Paint Dry (33 min. 2005) Produced, directed, and shot by Lester Alfonso. An event held at Cinema 379 in Peterborough, Ontario on June 13, 2005, where a painter, a saxophonist, a turntablist, a violinist, and a videographer came together for a live cinema performance as a fundraiser for a school’s music program.
Check out also: Painted Films by Lester Alfonso — a showcase featuring videos about painting, mural painting at B!KE, the web series What is Art? for more painting, and artwork by Hartley Stephenson for even more art.
Conceived as a fundraiser, it brought disparate artists together for a once-in-a-lifetime event, unlike anything I had ever done publically before or since. We literally invited a paying audience to “watch the paint dry.” The event was painter John Climenhage’s response to saxophonist William Hamilton’s cry for help; the Prince of Wales music program desperately needed extra funding or it would have to close.
The published video here is the raw footage from the main camera stationed at the back of the theatre. The movie screen displayed a live feed from my camera and I used the on-board effects and manipulated the movements to create variations in the image in an improvised performative way. The resulting “film” is the direct result of this videographer’s ballet.
The program boasted the headline “Decorative Performative” for this — the fifth edition of the [Sound + Vision] series. It’s kind of like the snake eating its own tail. The audience was invited to watch the live performance of a painter. John Climenhage painted a portrait of the musicians simultaneously scored the live video feed projected on the big screen that showed the painting process itself.
Musicians included turntablist (the late) Brian Wagner, saxophonist William Hamilton from Prince of Wales school, and his student Renée Deschenes on violin. The resulting diptych (the painting and the video document of the making of the painting accompanied by soundtrack) was to be auctioned off with proceeds going to help the Prince of Wales school music program.
Check out also: a brilliant short film called Broken Orchestra — a truly creative treatment to the topic of a school’s music program.