Six Colorful Inside Jobs

The camera gazes down on a room which on six successive days, undergoes a complete repainting by a man. Each day in another colour. Sunday is the day of rest. For this performance John Baldessari gave no guidelines to the student who did the painting, he simply chose the colour. The camera position makes the room appear to be a three-dimensional picture. The painter becomes the living brush of a picture which continuously paints itself. Baldessari’s conceptual film attempts to pose the question as to what fine art painting really is. The use of material in his performances is always minimal and he repeatedly asks: what is, and what is not, art? Painting is shown as an everyday praxis, far removed from a creative act that emphasises feeling and self-expression. In its use of the predetermined spectrum of the colour wheel, the performance also contradicts the notion of colour as a vehicle for emotional expression. As a student Baldessari himself worked as a house painter in order to earn money. Six Colorful Inside Jobs asks about the difference between a house painter and an artist: in an interview Baldessari once said that while he painted walls and rooms, he repeated to himself : "NOW I’m painting a wall, NOW I’m making a painting, NOW I’m painting a wall, NOW I’m making a painting..."