Living Paintings
PERFORMED PAINTINGS
For ten years, Channing specialised in ‘Living Paintings’ as performance art and theatre.
These ‘Living Paintings’ or “Quadri Vivi” were unique in Europe.
Seen in ‘theatrical’ settings, i.e. for a seated and silent audience,
the frame and tableau would be unveiled and a 30 minute mimed performance would follow.
In the way of an operatic aria, this slow motion performance would often be
based on one theme or one aspect of the life of either the painter or the subject of the portrait or both.
They were also seen at arts festivals, private events in galleries and museums
(including the Louvre in Paris and the Leonardo da Vinci Science Museum in Milan),
at corporate events and have been central to over 50 guest appearances on Italian television.
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( Gallery Below )
Several were commissions for television or or private performance.
Repertoire included:
– Vincent van Gogh. ‘Self-Portrait’ & ‘Portrait of the postman of Arles, Monsieur Roulin’
– Pablo Picasso. ‘Harlequin au Bar Lapin Agile’
– Leonardo da Vinci. ‘The Girl with the Ermine’
– René Magritte. Son of Man
– Georges Braque. ‘Portrait of a man” in the cubist style explored and developed by Braque and Picasso during the 1910s.
– Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. .’Portrait of an English gentleman at the Moulin Rouge, ‘Portrait of William Warrener’
– Henri Matisse. Portrait of Madame Matisse
– Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi). Bacchus Unwell
and
– Leonardo da Vinci. ‘Mona Lisa’ – as a comedy piece.
MONA LISA Chris Channing
MONA LISA Chris Channing
BRAQUE Chris Channing
BRAQUE perf. background Chris Channing
LA DAMA CON ERMELLINO Chris Channing
LAUTREC (detail) Chris Channing
LAUTREC Chris Channing
MADAME MATISSE Chris Channing
PICASSO Chris Channing
POSTMAN BY VAN GOGH Chris Channing
VAN GOGH Chris Channing