'Going Tornado' was a performance by Paul Neagu recorded in the
studios of the Scottish television station Grampian in 1974. The two
drawings 'Going Into Tornado' and 'Gradually Going Tornado' from the
same year are preparatory studies for the performance, in which the
artist roller-skated around a series of objects in a spiral pattern,
gradually undressed, and then tied various leather straps around his
hands and body. The drawings were incorporated into the film that
documented the work. He wrapped the various objects on the floor in
paper and secured the packages to one of the leather straps around his
hips. As he began to turn around his axis, the packages flew outwards,
and he spun faster and faster before finally falling to the ground and
cutting off the objects.
The performance was executed several times over the years and is one of the artist’s key works.
'In my account 'Gradually Going Tornado' stands for an organized lucid realization (see whirling dervishes or the Shakers); it bears a cyclic gyroscopic movement as an instrument of ritual, which absorbs life-physical facts and generates art-spiritual suggestions' (Paul Neagu in: 'Gradually Going Tornado! Paul Neagu and His Generative Art Group', exhibition catalogue, Sunderland Arts Centre, 1975, p. 27).