Gary Burkon - Australia
About the artist
Member since the very beginning
Artist statement
This body of work I submit is concerned with moving personal mythologies through transitory states and metaphors of the mezzanine in nature such as nightfall, the seasons and the tides. I attempt in it to develop a personal poetics imperative to the alchemy of these transitions.
The dominant theme in this series, the figure and the scape underlies my interest in the relationships between the referential and the reverential, confluent with the visible but hidden in rhythms and echotype, its counterpart, its reflection.
I connect these figures strongly in essence to butoh, they seem to originate from primitive alliances in nature, inhabiting scenes from where stems an expression or the very origins of a secret psychic impulse, - a word before words.
As in butoh, the body in this work attempts to ‘perform’ a geneology of rebirth.
The underlying concern in its simplicity; - the movement from the darkness of material consciousness into the light of spiritual consciousness.
Biography
I gained bursary school certificate from MacLean’s college in 2000 with a scholarship certificate in photography and a distinction award in the Manukau youth art awards of that year. I also produced a mural for Botany Downs Baptist Church, Auckland measuring 5mx3m. From 2002-2003 I studied at Elam school of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, exhibiting at Artspace, karangahape rd, Auckland in 2003. the following year I moved to Perth to continue studio at the School of Contemporary Arts at Edith Cowan University, and graduated late February of 2005 with high distinctions awarded for Studio and distinctions for Elective/theoretical courses. Since graduating I have concentrated on moving the different primary modes of my work ( painting, photography and installation ) towards common fields of influence. From September of 2005 I retreated for 3 months in several mountaneous areas of Japan, meditating on the specific ambience of sacred forested sites. Currently I am initiating a body of work of which will reconcile the intertwining influences of these personally significant places.
Exhibitions
• Follow the white rabbit; group exhibition, Art space, Auckland, August 11- October 8 2003, cur rated by Tobias Berger, www.artspace.org.nz
• Manuakau youth art awards, select show, Fisher Gallery, Auckland, September 07-October 18 2000, cur rated by Tony Morgan
Contact
Gary Burkon
Home: 934 30253
Mobile: 0421207661
Email: [email protected]
