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Hornsey Show

Installation view, Doug Burton, Salivating Entropy, detail 2006, black pigmented wax on plywood, resin and foam structure, 145 x 265 x 190 cm; Nicky Hirst, Descriptive Linguistics, detail 2008, printed paper and pins; Doug Burton, Critical Mass, 2007, Black pigmented wax on plywood, resin and foam structure, 275 x 370 x 310 cm

Critical Mass, 2007, Front and Side

The Animation is 3mins 17seconds long and was projected onto a wall within the gallery measuring 637cm x 850cm. I work a lot with 3D modelling programs and use them as I would the materials in the real world. My idea was to smash through the wall creating a rupture and allowing the matter that seeped out to be manipulated and orchestrated by me. I am interested in how the effects of a teleological process could transform its material properties until the material finally annihilates itself.

The animation is in a continual state of flux, the contours rising and falling as they articulate the rhythms of the landscape that formed them. It appears before me as a geological fragment owing much to the geological history that created it. The surface of the material goes through a process of fossilisation from its singular organic origin into a fragment formed by a process of repetition that is integral to the concept and formation of the animation. The textures are rendered with pulsating organ like forms and a micro internal landscape that threatens to envelop the corporeal space. This creates a visceral layer that repels me as well as drawing me into the detail within the crevices and tunnels of its topography.

Morphology: Doug Burton and Nicky Hirst
January 11 � March 2, 2008


Burton presents two large sculptural works Critical Mass, 2007 and Salivating Entropy, 2006, both made from black, pigmented wax on plywood, resin and a foam structure. These darkly organic shapes recall science fiction monsters, irradiated swamp creatures that have grown, morphed from a contaminated earth. Their genesis is in a city residency that Burton had in 2006 where he explored �brownfield� sites. While at once being menacing they are extremely beautiful, their texture inviting, their colour trapping the eye in the swirls of wax. These works are augmented by a three dimensional computer generated animation called Celestial Mechanics, 2008, where the site becomes the virtual and therefore the global. The images themselves dissolve one into the other in a m�lange of colour and form.
Text: Michael Petry, edited

The exhibition catalogue will feature an extended essay by David Lillington

Celestial Mechanics, 2008, Animation