“Katarina Countiss, multimedia artist and Klanghaus team member, will present ‘bathory’ a live painting experience featuring a bucket of liquid latex, a body, a white wall and clip lights (the essential ingredients to any act of human mastery)! Think action painting with abstract/poetic dance/movement elements.”

(Above) The write-up for the piece. I got a tub and some tempera paint as well as liquid latex paint. This was two hours of me being out near but not that near a firepit in the backyard of a DIY venue called Granny’s. The event was Bloodhaus, a blood-themed Klanghaus. There were other pieces in the house and live noise music generated in the backyard.

It felt like doing a live ASMR video. I really enjoyed the solitude of performing in this space in this way. And, it was cool to hear the noise music– it felt like a natural collaboration. I used an overhead projector for the main part of the lighting scheme. I am glad I own that thing.

The presenter of the show procured the boards and tarp for me. I got the white fabric. Half of the piece was me painting the boards and myself with the paint. The other half was me peeling off the paint from my mostly naked body.

I got really good feedback from this piece and I would love to do something like it in the future. I hadn’t played with liquid latex paint before. I’m still not sure how much I know about it because I mixed it with tempera paint. My skin did not have an adverse reaction, so that’s good. I used moisturizer before and afterward. I spent a lot of time cleaning myself after this. I imagine that a think and smooth, pure, one-time application of the liquid latex paint would be easier to get off than what I did.