Video: http://youtube.com/0509hari
PERFORMANCE artist Norton Wisdom impressed the audience of 80 expatriates and Chinese with improvised painting onstage with Australian musician Ron Keelan and Nepali drummer Nepali Hari Shrestha coming from Hong Kong on Friday night at Peccati Di Gola Italian Restaurant on South Lovers Avenue in Gongbei.
http://www.deltabridges.com/gallery/zhuhai-galleries/norton-wisdom-peccati-di-gola-zhuhai
An iron-framed backlit sheet of clear plastic stood in the northeast corner of the restaurant adorned with a painted fleecy cloud. The cloud looked vivid with a pair of “bleeding” eyes and a small human figure ensconced in the middle. Against the wall nearby, Ron played both western and Chinese lyrical music on an electric guitar meant to inspire Norton’s brush strokes.
Norton, in black, began by wiping off the cloud with a sponge and then painting a few green ribbons that floated as they grew to intertwine. This cobweb he sprinkled with water, which made it weep green tears.
Two red eyes and a bleeding mouth were then painted on top of the sheet and a white animal emerged below, which was then replaced by a long-tailed black lion. A windshield wiper was used to scrape the lion white. Between its eyes stood a blue woman playing the guitar. Brown ribbons ran wild until becoming a furious wave in front of the woman. The wave was dotted with eyes and, at this time, a red brigantine sprouted up below the wave. A brown long-robed woman rose between the ebbing wave and ship, with her hands holding high a pearl.
The painting, growing from a few ribbons to a complete picture, was finished in 10 minutes by using brushes, wiping cloth, windshield wiper, sponge and the artist’s fingers.
When the music stopped, Norton put down his brush and grabbed a camera from the side of the stage and took a photograph of his completed work of art.
Then he scrubbed it off and started over again.
Obviously, Norton’s live work does not aim for a finished image, but celebrates the process of fluid metamorphosis: a cornucopia of images emerging unpredictably from one another: clouds become bodies, bodies become musical instruments, buildings become rockets, and dinner plates become crowns worn by monarchs, in a labyrinth of unexpected paths. The live experience of his work continually challenges one’s perception of reality, and ability to predict how forms and shapes relate to each other, an interview with Norton in Los Angeles states.
“I’ve never painted the same thing twice -- I mean I paint horses, the ocean, but never the same way. I don’t really practise. I just perform. I don’t want a practise, so I know I just want to be a new-born baby everyday,” Norton said.
He doesn’t think in painting; rather, the audience helps him to think. He brings them there and they bring him there. “We all work together. That’s a teamwork,” he grinned.
“What matters is being yourself and knowing good people and great music. To me, music is the most important thing, because the music inspires the painting,” he said.
Norton has shared the stage with great musicians and poets since he painted with the first band in the late 1970s. Apart from taking pictures of what he had painted, he never keeps any original artwork. “Don’t hold on -- that’s what Lao Tzu said,” he said with a smile.
Kingsleg Phillips, an Australian who has lived in Zhuhai for years, claimed it incredible. “I think it’s really good, because Zhuhai really lacks of sort of artistic performances. It’s amazing,” he said, adding, “I think the really important thing about this is that the artist destroyed everything that he had improvised. To me, it reminds me of the sand art in Egypt, and the wind throws it away.”
Nancy Munoz Diaz, a Columbian who has lived in Zhuhai for seven years, suggested that Chinese should preserve their own culture, and conversely she proposed bringing in different culture to enjoy, like the artist Norton this time. She said of Norton’s work: “I sometimes wonder why somebody can manage colour that way. I just wonder if it’s about the light or the colour, because sometimes one colour is enough for everything.”
Kevin Brown, an American who teaches at GLV, also called the paintings amazing. “He doesn’t play with the paint, but his fingers,” he said. In black clothes and shoes, Norton had black fingers as well. “All colours combined makes black,” he noted.
Norton came to China to perform live improvised painting for the first time in 1995. He is now back for two weeks for a PRD tour, with the opening show in Zhuhai that night, according to Jack Jent, a close friend and an American who has lived in Zhuhai since 2002. Along with JJ Verdun, a Frenchman who co-operates www.deltabridges.com, and Simone Giancaterino, owner of the Italian restaurant, Jack was one of the main organizers of the PRD-tour show.
“Art is universal. It’s a new place for him, and it’s a new place for people here. It’s an experience I want to share with my friends here,” Jack explained why he suggested Norton stage a comeback in China. “I think he’ll bring new experience, new ideas, new thoughts and new images to the audience here,” he added.
A second art show was staged in Zhongshan the next day and other shows will follow in Macao, Shenzhen and Foshan, JJ explained. Before Norton goes back to the US, another exhibition going with a Chinese traditional musical instrument will be
28 सेप्टेमबर २००९ नेपालीको महान चाड बिजया दशमी तथा शूभ दिपावली २०६६ को पावन अवसरमा नेपाली समाज। नेपाली समितीको आयोजनामा यहि अक्टोबर ३ तारिक का दिन स्थित हाईसन क्लबमा बिजया दशमी तथा शुभ दिपावलीको पावन अवसरमा शुभकामना आदान प्रदान तथा सास्कृतीक कार्यक्रम गरी मनाउने कार्यक्रम रहेको जानकारी गराउदै सम्पुर्ण नेपालीहरुलाई उपस्थित भईदिनुहुन हार्दिक निमन्त्रणा गर्दछौ । http://www.alopalo.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=280:2009-05-21-06-41-32&catid=36:artist&lang=en 
