Local Stigma
a video installation
2004
4 projections on 4 blank white canvases, 175 x 140 cm each

We see someone walking onto a floor covered with white fabric. The person has brought materials for constructing an underframe. Over this they stretch a canvas, next applying an acrylic primer, thus changing the ochre of the canvas to white. The colour of the canvas begins to blend with that of the floor. As it dries, the person departs, carrying away all unnecessary articles. The process of priming and drying the canvas continues until they deem the canvas to be ready.

David Adamec, Patricie Fexová, Milan Salák and Jan Šerých, who took turns in the role of protagonist, were filmed by a camera suspended at a height of almost five metres. In the end, their product served as a screen for the projection of the video recording of their idiosyncratic manufacturing processes.

The video recordings provide an almost laboratory-like testimony of the working methods of the painters concerned - how they construct the frame, stretch the canvas and prime it, the way they organise their working space, what kind of tools they use and how they make time their own.

Each of these factors led me to the idea of observing a selection of artists at work, performing my favourite activity.