Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us, Featuring Bill Burns

Featuring Bill Burns
Contributors: Dan Adler, Jennifer Allen, Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda, Jennifer Matotek and Stuart Reid

Hardback
ISBN 978-1-910433-06-5
29.95 / $39.95
22x15cm / 6x9in
123 colour and b/w ills
224 pages

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 Burns 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 artists career. This history, like memory, is less contiguous than spontaneous, more preoccupied with prophecies and mood swings than the sterileness of factuality.

We would like to acknowledge the generous support for this project from the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina, SK) and Rodman Hall Art Centre, Brock University (St. Catharines, ON).

A recent review on Hans-Ulrich Obrist Hear Us was written by Jesse van Winden and published in the Journal of Curatorial Studies. Click here for the PDF of the review.