First Body Painting Championships for SALA Festival 2009

The championships will be staged in August as part of South Australia’s Living Artists Festival (SALA Fest).

Originally from the UK, Gratton is now based in Sydney. He was first talked into the idea at an Amsterdam party 20 years ago. Since then he has been touring the world painting models.

He believes it is important to for the model to be painted in front of the audience. This adds to the spectacle created for the show. The model also needs to perform a dance or movement of some kind that will show off the expression of the body paint.

It is interesting because as a performance artist I too use body paint as a means to heighten the expression of the performance movement that I create. Body Painting is so liberating and can represent an aesthetics that would otherwise be missed in some performance art. It is so exciting to see that Australia is beginning to embrace this form of self expression which has been held in festivals worldwide for decades. If you’re in Adelaide during the SALA Festival then be sure to see the body painting competitions. I will be doing a performance of The Watermelon Man there as well.

Gratton's SA Body Painting Championships will be at Shotz Nightclub on August 22, 2009. The SALA Festival is from August 7 to 23, 2009.

By Frank Barresi
theonewhodoesnotexist@gmail.com
http://theonewhodoesnotexist.blogspot.com/