what is it?

PAaDa is the acronym for Painting As a Democratic act. This tour refers to the project artist Kathy Williams pursues as she considers if abstract painting and sculpture effectively communicate with the public. Williams will use each space to create a series of painted marks / three dimensional paintings that exist in physical space. The complete process is a performace, is public and highlights the decison making process we all can make at different times and in different places. Williams can only make and assemble the painted reactions in specific places, times and influence of other people. We can never make the same work twice as we can never completely replicate any experience we live with.

PAaDa is a project that invites the public to visit, take their own photographs of the painted marks and sculpture, upload them and use as the final documentation. Everyones viewpoint will be unique and the works legacy will only be seen via the eyes of the people who saw it during its lifespan ( the duration of occupancy).

Williams is very interested in playing with opposites…inside and outside, internal / external, artist / not artist and knowledge / no knowledge. For these reasons, the public will be invited to add their own painted abstract shapes on the external window ….a means of developing a universal symbolic language, of fusing expert knowledge with the not, and so democracising the whole process and understanding of what abstract art can be.

The development of this project in particular seeks to expand the discussion of contemporary abstract art with local communities. A direct experience of the thought processes involved will serve to expand understanding and accessibility. The temporal nature of the site specific installation gives weight to the importance of documentation taken by the public, serving to give ownership to that public, and a growing understanding, an effective visual communication from the artists’ artwork.