Archival documentation of Charlotte Moorman performances as part of Kaldor Public Art Project Moorman + Paik, 1976

In 1976, Paik and Moorman jointly presented an exhibition and over forty performances in Adelaide and Sydney. This project was the fifth in a series of revolutionary contemporary public art projects commissioned by Australian art patron John Kaldor, the first being Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Wrapped Coast in Sydney in 1969.

The exhibition showcased a selection of Paik’s most influential video sculptures as well as madcap performances of compositions by Paik and his contemporaries, including Jim McWilliams, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono and John Cage. The performances caught the media’s attention: they included a nude Moorman playing an ice-sculpted cello, swinging on a trapeze; covering herself and her cello in chocolate fudge; and floating above the crowds at the Sydney Opera House as she played her cello in a sky full of balloons.