Watercolours

On ladder plying hose, Ben Vautier

Watercolours, Musée d'Art Vivant, Nice, 6.7.81

"Conolly (sic), un performer du groupe de Liverpool genre Fluxus, réalise un merveilleuse petite pièce. Il s'installe sur le podium avec un chevalet et de la peinture à l'huile (sic) pour faire un paysage. Moi même sur un échelle un peu plus haut dans l'ombre avec un lance d'arrosage je l'arrose comme s'il pleuvait. Au fair et â mesure que son tableau se délaie â l'eau il le dechiré et en fait un autre. 7/10" - Ben Vautier's magazine 'Ben-Art', August 1981.

I contacted Ben when I was in the area to visit friends who were at the Fondation Karolyi artists' colony in Vence, and he invited me to come to his home in the hills above Nice. When I got there, he told me that it was the site of an international Fluxus convention that evening, that I was billed to appear as the official Fluxus artist representing Liverpool, and that I had two hours to come up with an idea. Using materials to hand, I said that I would paint the view at sunset in watercolours while he sprayed me and the easel with water, so that the image was constantly washed away and replaced as the light changed, eventually leaving a ghostly composite image to be torn off the pad and itself replaced.