Tom Isaacs

For the 2006 Undergraduate Degree Show at Sydney College of the Arts I presented an installation titled Collected. This installation included physical remains and video documentation of performances from 2006 as well as a work from the previous year Quilt (2005).

The video screen in this installation shows documentation from three performances. For the first performance Catching Paint (2006), I attempted to catch black paint with my hand as it was poured and dripped from above in a parody of Richard Serra’s Catching Lead. In the second performance Paint Head (2006), my head was covered by a sheet of white fabric and my arms were wet with black paint. I tried to wipe as much paint from my hands onto the sheet as I could. In the third performance Intestines (2006), I pulled a roll of paper through a bowl of black paint until the paint ran out and the paper broke.

On the right hand side of the installation there are physical remains from my performance Shroud (2006). For this performance I lay on the ground with a sheet laid over me and a second piece of fabric under my head. The performance began with Sach Catts massaging black paint into my long hair. When my hair was completely soaked in black paint Sach dripped the remaining paint over my body from his cupped hands.

At the foot of the bed a stack of canvas boards are physical remains from a performance titled Scrubbing (2006). Over the course of 2006 I painted a series of one hundred abstract paintings using black paint on white canvas boards. When the paintings were finished I did a performance where I attempted to scrub them all clean.

Out the front of the installation there is a black book and a white bowl marked with black paint which are physical remains from my performance Black Book (2006). On the opening night of the Undergraduate Degree Show I sat cross legged on the floor with a bowl full of black paint and a blank book in front of me. Over the course of an hour I painted each page of the book black with my hand.