Ian Burns’s sculptural machines are made up of rudimentary materials of housing construction. They are highly visual and engaging. The very ways in which they function invoke curiosity, the materials and methods of construction openly explain the functioning of the device, and the humour at play all serve to engage the viewer in a unique and personal experience.
Read MoreThese three dimensional structures generate the style and format of visual images we recognize as informational or narrative based yet reveal it as little more than the entertainment it is typically consumed as. In this way they offer a more engaging viewing experience than the contemporary technological means of delivering such screen based information.
In recent years Ian Burns has held solo exhibitions in Dublin, Vienna, St. Louis, New York, Melbourne, Paris and Madrid. Group exhibitions include the Liege Biennial in Belgium (2012), the Anne Landa Award at the Art Gallery of NSW (2011) and Housebroken, at the Flux Factory, New York (2010). Burns' work is included in a number of public collections, including the Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Berge Collection, Spain, the Chartwell Collection, Auckland and 21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky. Burns is a current recipient of a Queensland College of Art, Griffith University Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship.
In addition to this list of achievements, his major new work anywhere and here will tour nationally with the 5th International Biennial of Media Art Experimenta Speak to Me, in 2013-14. Experimenta Director Jen Mizuik has commented "We are thrilled to bring this timely and relevant commission to Australian audiences in partnership with ACMI and to tour it nationally as part of Experimenta Speak to Me through to 2014."
