Variety Show at Material
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.
-Tom Burtonwood
Material
2025 West Belmont Ave, storefront
Chicago, IL 60618
Material is open by appointment
contact us to make an appointment
Material is an artist run project space located in Chicago. We host solo exhibitions and related programming to emerging and established artists from Chicago and elsewhere. Curators and artists are invited to propose exhibitions and events.