Tom Burtonwood

Permutation, pastel on paper, 2009

First drawing in new series of work (95% finished).

Permutations I, time line, sketchbook page. June 2009

Working on a new project, Permutations, an animated sequence showing several variations on a unfolding cube. Sketchbook page sequence below shows a range of possible final unfolded outcomes, currently i’m working on the “master” drawings for the first full sequence. hope to have these complete by middle of week in draft format. really excited about this direction, eventually the final animation will have an audio component too.

Sketchbook sequence. June 2009

Animation sequence below shows first 7 or 8 frames from the upcoming Permutations piece….. can’t wait to get all this done and start playing with these “Containers” and adding some content!

Permutations, opening sequence, June 2009

Studio, Carbondale, 2000

In keeping with the diagonal slant of the previous post i present this snap shot of my studio, circa 2000, at the Glove Factory, Carbondale. One of my abiding interests are systems and the information they require to exist andthe data the produce. Part of this fascination includes being overwhelmed by information, whether undertaking research for a specific art work and not knowing where to draw the line, or attempting to define a complex system, or some other instance of massive overload, in any case there is way more data out there than we can hope to understand or parse together or see the linkages and discern the differences. One response to this phenomena for me has always been to drop the filters and just present it, warts and all, un-mediated as much as possible. i think on one level i enjoy the aesthetic of overload, of sensory over stimulation  and on the other hand in the presence of so much random material i try and still develop relationships and linkages. The image above is taken from my studio in Carbondale toward the end of my 2nd yerar there. having re-newed my attraction to all things reflective i started pasting up on the studio walls pretty uch any thing and everything that seemed half way interesting without much thought as to how it would look or what it might be later on.

Lander, Cardboard and mixed media, 2000

Lander was the next generation of mobile sculptures i produced at SIUC. The Lander was a in military speak a MANP (Man Portable) sculpture. Drawing inspiration from the Apollo Eagle Lunar Lander the piece folded into a compact rectangle that could be carried as a backpack. A standard camera tripod provided legs to raise the Lander off the ground. The sections were intended to resemble solar panels or some kind of sensor array. Once again i painted it a bright yellow for maximum disruption when set up in public.

Apart from creating some kind of absurd intervention, this piece was the first system sculpture. Traveling first from Carbondale via Amtrak to Chicago, then by air from Chicago to Minneapolis (via Kansas City) and back again this piece was an early stab at developing an administrative art work. Lander was a super important work for me as it focused in on a range of themes and practices that would shape my development both at Carbondale and later here in Chicago.

First and foremost it got the work out there. In a real physical sense. Not only was the work shipped around the Midwest but at each location it was installed on the street for 10 – 15 minutes and passed out information to passersby. Each intervention was documented with photographs and later in the gallery these images were combined with maps showing each site. Apart from the simple act of getting visibility this project cemented the DIY ethos that would define pretty much everything i have done since as an artist and arts professional. In a wider sense this piece symbolized the transportation of ideas, creating networks, developing “integrated systems.” All concepts that again would prove key to my thesis show and later to my practice. And oddly enough for me this piece was pre-internet, sure i was using email, and thinking about web sites and so forth but it was still dot com bubble land, ie it wasn’t utterly ubitquitous. For me this piece was about tracking an object of intellectual curiousity through physcial space, as one might track a package via fed ex.

UPDATE 08/29/09

APS Filmstrip showing different installations in MPLS, 2000

Digging thru boxes tidying the studio and found this image, of showing various installations of Lander in and around Uptown in Minneapolis during the Thanksgiving break in the fall of 2000. I love the format of this APS filmstrip, a sort of pre-digital image, or at least a transitional technology that if anything was a signal of the eventual demise of 35mm (135) camera film. Anyhow i love how this image shows all the different states, with a numerical designation in the bottom left corner and so forth. At some point i’ll upload further documentation of the project and possibly build a small sub-website to tell the story completely.