The Perfect Artist by Matthew Gingold is a video portrait installation that explores creativity: the people who create and what it means to be creative. The project was exhibited as part of Present Tense, at the National Portrait Gallery from May to August 2010.

Artists, arts workers and administrators were invited from around Australia to have their portraits recorded. The shoots were conducted in Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and the Northern Territory.

These portraits form a unique and colourful database of 84 individual creative people ‘performing themselves’. In total there is around 50+ hours of footage, edited into 1400 clips and databased according to subject matter, emotional tone and performative criteria.

Reflecting the live performance of the participants, the final installation consists of a computer ‘performing live’ in the exhibition space – generatively sorting, selecting and composing the video clips in real-time.

The Perfect Artist was made possible with support from the following perfect organisations: Arts Victoria, Aphids, PVI Collective, Performance Space, PACT, Head Quarters, Bill & George, Tiny Stadiums and the National Portrait Gallery.