Kaleidoscope
An exhibition of drawings by Tom Burtonwood

Opening reception Friday September 11th, 5.30 - 7.30pm
Exhibition open through September 3rd - October 11th
Box Factory for the Arts
1101 Broad Street, St. Joseph, MI 49085
Phone: 269.983.3688
Email: info@boxfactoryforthearts.org
https://boxfactoryforthearts.org

"repetition lends a kaleidoscopic quality to the writing– and what is a kaleidoscope but a device to reassemble endlessly the same particles? As if anticipating modern quantum physics, his world model is that of an indeterminate universe of endless permutation and recombination."

James Grauerholz, “On William S. Burrough’s Interzone,” pub. Die Welt, 1990


“A Cube is a Rectangle / Ein Würfel ist ein Rechteck” is an ongoing series of drawings Burtonwood began in the summer of 2022. The arc of this project began in 1999 with the invention of an unfolding box sculpture that opens to reveal a pyramid at its center and unfurling polyhedric modules like the petals of a flower. The drawings in the series show the closed state of this box sculpture. Colloquially Burtonwood refers to each drawing as a Würfel which is the German word for cube.

All the Würfels from this series are hand drawn on Bristol Vellum 270 gsm in ink and acrylic and cut to 5.5”H by 4.25” W. The drawings begin with a matrix of 16 rectangles arranged in a grid format. Each rectangle is bisected into triangles alternating from top left to bottom right and top right to bottom left. From this matrix an “isometric cube” (aka a hexagon) can be produced by drawing lines between the quarter points on each vertical side and center points on each horizontal side. From there a pyramid is projected from the base of the cube to the center of the top face. At the corners four square towers span the height of the cube. The width and depth of each tower is approximately one eighth the overall height of the cube. Burtonwood subtracts the pyramid and towers from the cube to imagine four polyhedric modules.

At times Burtonwood renders these modules as opaque, occluding the internal logic of the form but more often than not he imagines them in different material states. Maybe a drawing leans towards the diaphanous and the immaterial, in others it becomes about tessellation and topology. Some Würfels annihilate the Platonic solids and others celebrate them with unambiguous form. Cut-up techniques and random number systems find their way into Burtonwood’s process. He particularly enjoys finding new outcomes from arbitrary starting points and chance encounters.

“A Cube is a Rectangle / Ein Würfel ist ein Rechteck” numbers over 420 drawings of which several hundred will be on display at Box Factory for the Arts. For more information about Burtonwood’s work take a look at his website here https://tomburtonwood.com or follow him on Instagram @tomburtonwood.

Variety Show

Opening Reception Tuesday April 16th, 6 - 9pm Exhibition dates April 13th - May 10th

Gallery hours Saturdays 2pm - 5pm or by appointment.
2025 West Belmont Ave, storefront Chicago, IL 60618

216 375 2025
info@materialexhibitions.com
https://materialexhibitions.com

The arc of this project began in 1999 with the invention of an unfolding box sculpture that opens to reveal a pyramid at its center and unfurling modules like the petals of a flower. At the time Burtonwood was experiencing the internet for the first time and situating art works within networks and systems thinking. The sculpture was conceived as a metaphor for the ways information was opening up, being transmitted, collected and linked to. He wanted to make something modular that could be mailed to and from places of exhibition and “installed” simply by unfolding it as one might pitch a tent. In this sense he sought to democratize art by making it something that could be exhibited anywhere and not just in gallery or museum spaces.

Variety Show is the current installment of this project. The exhibition features four different approaches to the central theme of the unfolding box motif: drawing, painting, sculpture and animation. Through these four pathways Burtonwood has produced a broad lexicon of images, forms and gestures that hide and seek figure, ground, surface, pattern, presence and play. Movement, whether implied or enacted, is central to Burtonwood’s project. It is suggested in the many drawings exhibited in the space and demonstrated in a short looping animation where two of the unfolding boxes are mirrored and choreographed together. Completing the exhibition is a full size version of the unfolding cube made from painted cardboard and linen tape. Visitors to the exhibition will be encouraged to interact with the sculpture and help to enact its kinetic potential.