Guy Benfield
Head-Painting (Asbestos Tracking in Hi Red Center 1972)




Artwork Detail
History returns as farce in the work of Guy Benfield. His campy video-performances and installations mix references to a 1970s Sydney bohemian lifestyle (witnessed first hand as a child) with references to sensational avant-garde art of similar vintage. The video Head Painting shows Benfield pouring paint on himself while dragging himself down the gallery wall, leaving paint-trails where his head and shoulder make contact. The performance recalls Paul McCarthy's famous 1970s performance, painting a line on the floor using his head as a brush. What Benfield leaves on the wall looks like Zen-inspired action-calligraphy after Max Gimblett. However, Benfield's behind-the-scenes document presents his creative act as not heroic, expressive or meditative, but routine, abject, forlorn. (Snake Oil, 2005)
- Title
- Head-Painting (Asbestos Tracking in Hi Red Center 1972)
- Artist/creator
- Production date
- 1998
- Medium
- single channel video, standard definition (SD), 4:3, colour, stereo sound
- Dimensions
- 1min 8sec
- Credit line
- Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, 2004
- Accession no
- C2004/1/1
- Copyright
- Copying restrictions apply
- Department
- International Art
- Display status
- Not on display
To find out which artworks are available for print requests and reproduction please enquire here. This service only applies to select artworks in the Gallery's collection.