This performance lasted around two hours and coincided with my exhibition, Chimeric Herbarium. It started on a Sunday afternoon inside the gallery, where I covered the floor in clear plastic and painted the skin of Takatsuna Mukai white with red tendrils alluding to my Mimus candentis specimen.

We periodically walked out into the busy Brick Lane market, where stalls lined the street and hundreds of people swarmed. I continued to paint with the crowd flowing around us, and spectators occasionally stopping to watch.

Taka’s body gradually became wrapped in red, starting with methodical lines and escalating into dripping and spray, referencing the violent interaction of a parasitic Alien Botany plant specimen with a host organism.

Video-glimpse of the performance, scored by Taka:

Photos by John S. Martinez, video by Peachthief and John S. Martinez.