“What is Re-creations?”

  • Artist Tina McCallan and her assistants travel through Art History transforming the public into artists by inviting them to paint their own masterpiece in a collaborative painting performance.
  • Inspired by a democratic version of the painting workshops of the 15th century, where artists had anonymous assistants, she invites the audience of the museum to become the artists themselves, breaking down the barriers between artist and audience as well as demystifying the process of oil painting.

“What first inspired the project?”

  • You’ve seen copyists at work in the National Gallery? A small crowd gathers, watching with bated breath as the replica comes to life, wishing they could participate.
  • Tina wondered what would happen if she invited the onlookers to paint. In her projects, the public are the copyists, working together collaboratively in the alchemical process of creating an image.

 “Which institutions have staged “Re-creations?”

  • Tina has completed more than fifty commissions in museums and institutions such as The United Nations, Lebanon, The National Gallery, London, The Museum of London, The Museum of Fine Art, Valencia and the Glastonbury Festival, U.K.  
  • Each one is unique depending on the location, the event and the participants.
  • She is passionate about reaching audiences which don’t often go to galleries by creating projects in public places, places of work and institutions.

What’s the theory behind it?”

  • The work relates to Nicholas Bourriaud’s theory of Relational Art. In Relational Art, the audience is envisaged as a community, the artwork creates a social environment in which people come together to participate in a shared activity.
  • Tina’s aim is to create a whole gallery of  “Re-creations”, a kind of alternative collection of Old Masters where each work was created by the public.
  • Although no one can doubt the power, skill and mystique of the Old Masters, the work she makes in collaboration both pays homage to and pokes fun at them, made from a patchwork of styles and talent, the end result can often be dazzling.

“I like the idea of demystifying the process of oil painting, opening it up so that anyone can have a go. Using an ‘Old Master’ gives a sense of achievement to participants and also questions the ideas of authorship, genius and style by fragmenting the image and juxtaposing the ‘handwriting’ of many painters. It is also interesting to transform the normally solitary, private activity of the painter into a communal, public one.” Tina McCallan

Biography 

Tina McCallan was born in Guernsey, C.I. and studied painting at the Royal Academy Schools in London. She then went on to win a DAAD scholarship to the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie studying under Gunter Uecker. Since then she has lived in Paris, London and Istanbul and curently has a studio in Valencia, Spain.

As well as producing “Re-creations”, she also paints under the name of Marie Julou: https://www.mariejulou.com/

CONTACT: tina.recreations(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com

C.V. Tina McCallan

SUBSCRIBE to my email newsletter

* indicates required

Intuit Mailchimp