Keith Haring (b. 1958, USA – d. 1990)
Painting myself into a corner, 1979

One recurrent point of interest for me is movement. It does not really narrow down anything since practically all art making is based on movement – sound is movement, performance is movement, painting and drawing is typically achieved through hand movements etc. The audience is also moving in regards to the artwork in order to engage with it.

Often I find the movement itself equally interesting – or, possibly, even more so – than the traces it leaves or its documentation. It is in the movement that the actual engagement and artistic experience occurs. In many cases it seems to me that it is only the artist in the moment of making that work, in its very constitutive movement, can experience it at best.

Anyway, Haring’s video piece “Painting myself into a corner” was one of my first encounters with drawing/painting as an activity to be viewed. I find it inspiring how it employs painting both as a movement and its product and merges it with another medium, video. A pun in the title – that can be associated in a number of directions apart from the literal one – seals the deal.