Ian Burns (b1964, Newcastle, Australia; resides New York City, USA) puts technology to wry and witty use, employing toy vehicles and cheap consumer objects to examine the speed of modern life and test our faith in moving images.
Ian Burns’ kinetic dioramas and video feed works have engaged with subjects as diverse as the war in Iraq, TV culture, colonialism, and art history. Using plain wood and primitive electronics, and often incorporating household objects and other assorted junk, Burns creates absurdly convoluted mechanisms whose purpose is to produce a simple moving image on a screen, either by live video fed to a monitor, or as a shadow theater-like diorama.
Education:
PhD, 2008 Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
MFA, 2003 Hunter College of CUNY, New York, NY
BFA, 2000 The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
BEng, 1989 Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia