In this outdoor spectacle, Richard Jackson will fly and crash a remote-controlled, ultra-lightweight, battery powered, model military jet plane with a 15-foot wing span, and filled with paint, into a 20-foot canvas wall that reads “accidents in abstract painting.” On January 22, 2012, at 4:00 p.m. Jackson’s plane will take off and circle the field directly south of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for approximately 30 minutes. The climax will occur when the plane is aimed toward and flown into the canvas wall; the plane, made of balsa wood, will splinter on impact. Its contents—brightly colored paint—will splash onto, and then drip slowly down the canvas, making an “accidental” painting.

Following Jackson’s spectacle, video footage and photographic documentation will be shown with the wall and the plane debris, along with other work, at the Armory Center for the Arts in an exhibition entitled Richard Jackson: Accidents in Abstract Painting, the Armory, on display from February through May 2012.

FOR FOOTAGE OF THE EVENT ON 1/22/12, click here.