Art Metropole

#12596

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us

Artist

Bill Burns

Date

2016

Publisher

Black Dog Publishing

Format

Artists' Books

Size

15 × 22 cm

Length

224 pages

Genre

Photography, Performance Art

Description

Perhaps best known for his Safety Gear for Small Animals (SGSA) project, which was first shown at 303 Gallery in New York in 1994, conceptual artist Bill Burns works across a variety of disciplines to reveal the perpetual power play between natural orders ad cultural formations.

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us is a collection of writings exploring the transgressive and transdiciplinary nature of Burns’ Practice. The publication is richly illustrated with material representing Burns’ work across photography, performance, writing and artists’ books.

In her foreword to the publication, Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda recognizes that the after-effect of Burns’ work is deeply disillusioning, breaking up and foreclosing the harmonious unity of identity, micro and macrocosmic alike. Curator and art historian Dan Adler draws attention to the meaningless while casting doubt on the venerable. Lastly, art critic Jennifer Allen uncovers some of the forces at work within Burn’s narrativisation of his personal life and reflection on his role as an artist, asserting the act of forgetting is structural to Burns’ overall narrative composition.

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us also includes a first-person narrative by Burns, telling the story of his life through episodes that, although seemingly incongruous, have played a formative role in the development of the artist’s career. This history, like memory, is less contiguous than spontaneous, more preoccupied with prophecies and mood swings than the sterileness of factuality.

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