Ed Burnand
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My practice has developed over the years to establish deeply personal ways of making marks on canvas, paper and metal plates with a keen interest in the systems of making and the relationship with material properties, process and environment. The aim is to create proto-narratives, each open to their own interpretation, but all informed by a theme or set of boundaries.
The common technical thread is a multi-stage process of experiment, refinement, application and removal that build back, middle and foreground with consideration for the space these inhabit. This is achieved through the chemistry of high pressure washes, moving or drawing with ink on canvas, capturing paint reactions in polyurethane, uric acid etched zinc plates and drawing with air brushes/spray paint on tention surfaces; this enables the integration of abstract, natural, mechanical and architectural features.
Within this framework specific bodies of work have developed characterising all or one of the three main themes of my practise and opening up multiple points of departure as exampled bellow.
‘Macro-forms, Expressing the Abstract’ This body of work is a C-Type Photographic series exploring the nature of heavy spray paint build on a microscopic scale. They were then enlarged as high resolution scans to expose the intricate details of the material with an emphasis on process and material systems. The art critic Jack Burnham stated ‘change emanates, not from things, but from the way things are done’ this idea is at the heart of this series . The chemical reactions were re-imagined by virtue of scale, transforming the microscopic into an exposed labyrinth of colour, reaction and process.
Whilst material systems and processes are strong aspects of my practise, there is also a context or frame-work that extends beyond these principles. One such theme is the relationship between utopian idealism and the dystopian ruin; a dialogue that plays out on parallel lines. Although juxtaposed they allow polar points of view within the same conversation communicating ideas of personnel and collective memory, the death of empire, the ebb and flow of civilisations; culture, environment and human legacy.
The utopian narrative is often only realised through our imagination, this haunting failure perpetuates an aspiration to fix and build anew. For every relic of a harmonious era or utopian dream stands another reliving decline.
“The "ruins" of the modern era are the landmarks of recent art’s turn toward site and situation, history and memory. “ Ruins- Documents of Contemporary Art edited by Brian 2011
Ed Burnand © 2016-18