‘No condition is permanent’

500 Gallons of Paint and a Camera

During six consecutive weeks in August and September, The Barnstormers will create their second major time-lapse video installation. During this time, the roughly thirty artists in the group will create a multi-layered painting on the floor of Smack Mellon’s main gallery. The only record of the rapidly changing work will be a time-lapse film shot with a camera mounted in the rafters above the gallery floor. This footage will be continuously updated and projected in the front gallery.

Viewers will experience wildly different scenarios depending on time and day. As the floor transforms so will an accompanying soundscape of recorded and live music. On Saturdays special invited musical guests will accompany the Barnstormers’ visual orchestrations.

Who Are The Barnstormers? 

The Barnstormers are a collective of New York artists who create large-scale collaborative paintings, films and performances. The group formed in 1999 after a pilgrimage to the rural town of Cameron, North Carolina. During the trip, twenty-five artists painted dozens of barns, tractor-trailers, and shacks. Consequently, the tiny tobacco farming community became the unlikely Mecca for the urban collective. The Barnstormers continue to interpret and communicate the visual, cultural, and spiritual awakenings inspired by their trips to the south.

In New York, the Barnstormers have expanded beyond the initial scope of the barn-painting project. As part of the well-attended 2000 Downtown Arts Festival, the collective presented ‘Watching Paint Dry.’ This short time-lapse film captured a constantly changing painting that was created by twelve different artists over two weeks in July. In December of 2000 they presented a massive collaborative installation and performance at the Fish Tank Gallery in Williamsburg. Internationally, The Barnstormers continue to experiment by painting live with DJs and bands in New York, Osaka, and Cuba.