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KRISTIAN BURFORD : AUDITION

1,037 views · Published 17 October 2013 · 2:06 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: ERIC MINH SWENSON ART FILMS · 2013 · Education

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Film by Eric Minh Swenson.

Nye+Brown is pleased to present Audition, a new work by Los Angeles based artist Kristian Burford. Following his tradition of life sized mis-en scene, Burford stages this piece within an anonymous office space.
The work consists of two parts, both of which are office cubicles with a female figure standing in them. Two-way mirrors surround the cubicles so that they appear to repeat infinitely. The first woman we encounter stands, awkwardly taut, staring apprehensively in the direction of a second enclosure containing the same woman, this time relaxed, and placed in an arrangement featuring an arc formed by two office desks. She stands at the center in a pose that suggests rotation, planet like, on a tilted axis.
Cross referencing the functionality of an office building, an environment where information is processed but nothing is made, with the visual experience of infinite reproduction, Burford emphasizes the illusory nature of self awareness, promoting the idea that one can never be truly self-aware. Fundamentally the work is designed to reveal the relationship between consciousness and repetition/duplication. By betraying the abstractness of the logic by which we establish our presence in the world, the work suggests that this presence is invented. Burford sees this limitation as a potential. With this exhibition he continues to explore the emotional possibilities of illusion.
Kristian Burford was born in Waikerie, Australia in 1974.  He is a graduate of the University of South Australia, and received his MFA at the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles. His work has been widely shown in the US and abroad. Museum exhibitions include The Uncanny, curated by Mike Kelly, at the Tate Liverpool and the Museum Moderner Kunst Vienna; The National Sculpture Award Exhibition, National Gallery of Australia, and Robert, solo show, at the Contemporary Arts Center of South Australia, Adelaide. Burford lives and works in Los Angeles and Adelaide, Australia.
Francois Pinault to exhibit 50 works by 22 artists including Damien Hirst, Bill Viola and Kristian Burford, which will go on display at La Conciergerie on October 22, 2013. La Conciergerie, the former royal palace and prison where Marie Antoinette was held will play host to paintings, video installations, sculptures and photographs around a theme of captivity and imprisonment under the exhibition name À Triple Tour.
For more info on Eric Minh Swenson visit his website at thuvanarts.com.
His art films can be seen at thuvanarts.com/take1

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