EFA STUDIO PROGRAM: Member Artists
M BURGESS
After my 10-year exploration of the creative process and translation of studio into a theatrical set, i am currently editing a plethora of writings, videos, sounds and paintings to be worked into a staged installation. Meanwhile, as painting and sound continues to be a vehicle for further explorations, my environment of choice shifts outside of studio. The titles of the resulting images posted here are not to be taken too literally. What I refer to as Pinewood Trail, for example (top left image) is in fact, Mt Misery Trail - my favorite retreat - where spotting or hearing vultures is common. These birds do not have a syrinx (vocal organ), which makes for an ironic subtitle, VultureSpeak - as their communication consists entirely of guttural hisses, low grunts and wheezing sounds. A compelling aspect of outdoor settings such as this are the eureka moments experienced when a multisensory integration of sound (pressure waves) and color (light waves) creates a successfully unified perception of the environment – such that the two continuously shape and alter one another.
m is the recipient of numerous grants including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, NYFA, and The Jerome Foundation, with residencies in the United States such as MacDowell, MassMoCa, VCCA and abroad. THEY/THEm has had solo exhibitions in Chelsea and Brooklyn, Texas, and Vietnam and has participated in group exhibitions locally and internationally. With an MFA in sculpture from Yale, in their early years Burgess served as a curator at the Brooklyn Museum, as an assistant to Peter Eisenman, and as a pioneer in the emergence of interactive computer works. Having left 25 years of teaching, m is currently working as a full-time visual artist. Since June 2016, they have taken a bold turn in their practice, leaving the traditional frameworks and social discourses of their discipline for a solitary expedition into the source of creative flow, by accessing a pre-verbal mind-body state and documenting it.
