LIVE PAINTING IN HUDSON'S BAY CO. STOREFRONT

HEY APATHY! Monster Comics The CITY FISH live painting performance in the Hudson's Bay Company Storefront Window. The city is a giant fish! All the cars, people, wires, obstacles and opportunities formulate as an ominous monstrosity! However, atop one of it's gill buildings sits a tiny little fisher-person and no matter how overwhelming the metropolis becomes, the fisher keeps trying to reel it in! This huge painting performance and exhibition took place in the storefront window of the Hudson's Bay Company flagship Toronto location.

The extravagantly huge window display at Yonge Street and Richmond was awarded to me as part of nation wide promotion in which the major Canadian Hudson's Bay Co. outlets featured live artistic processes and demonstrations in support of the arts. My three day exhibition featured a full line of HEY APATHY! merchandise including comics, fashion designs, poster prints and street paintings as well a two oversized mural performances. The first was a two-day venture in which I created the City Fish, a 4 x 16 foot acrylic on board mural. The giant fish was followed by a 12 x 12 foot street style Witchdoctor painting done with black india ink on paper.

The venue and exposure was incomparably elite as thousands of people perpetually flooded past the giant window display. The weird part of the performance was being stuck behind glass. The actual demonstration was not dissimilar to those I've performed on the streets, but I was completely separated from the audience and all interactions. I am much more accustomed to face to face contact and the constant exchange of ideas with real people plays a huge role in my interventions. The only fun part about the segregation from the public passers by was that it gave me the opportunity to sneak out side of the window and eaves drop on the reactions. Standing unassumingly among the on looking crowds was a very interesting and effective means of studying my progress. Truth be told I’d thought I’d heard it all on the streets but when people don’t know that you’re there they say peculiar, and in this case unbelievably positive, things. Giant Surreal Store front presentation Hudson’s Bay Co. Yonge & Richmond Street Toronto Fall 2008.

Photography by Luke Tymowski

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