Tom Burr (US), Folding Screen
Folding Screen, 2007
Plexiglas mirror, wood, anodised metal
180 x 180 x 6 cm
The dynamic between the public and the private is central to Burr’s artistic practice. This is demonstrated here by an artwork that simultaneously blocks the viewer’s line of sight with a screen and actively diverts their attention away from what might be happening behind it by reflecting the viewer themselves and the public space around them. “I’ve always been interested in the space between things,” says Burr, “the through ways, the passages, the portals, the ruptures, the cracks, etcetera. That may seem merely poetic, but it’s my frame of mind, it’s how I’ve always approached things.” He concludes: “These gaps and the connections between things are more meaningful to me than any given building or object.”
Folding Screen is part of a long-running series that combines aspects of traditional Japanese partitions and minimalist sculpture. The easily transportable and adaptable screen points to the inevitably transitory use of space. Yet for Burr, nothing is autonomous or free of allusion, and everything has a political meaning, with objects carrying historical, discursive and contextual baggage.
The artist is also interested in how spaces become woven into narratives around history and life stories, often with a sense of theatricality. He is especially fascinated by confined public spaces adopted by “underground” subcultures. A powerful sense of seeing, being seen, and concealing emerges, potentially undermining the emphatically minimalist aspects of the artwork. As one space closes, another quite different, secret one can open up. This is often accompanied by a suggestion of the sexual politics of space in Burr’s oeuvre, which repeatedly references the queer community at various points in time.
Tom Burr lives and works in New York. He attended the School of Visual Arts and the Whitney Independent Study Program, and has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and the United States. Burr’s work has been collected by major museums internationally, including the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York); Migros Museum (Zurich); MOCA (Los Angeles); mumok (Vienna); New York Public Library; Museum Ludwig (Cologne); Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (Reims); FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais; Baltimore Museum of Art; and the Israel Museum (Jerusalem).