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 mélange of colour and form.
Text: Michael Petry, edited

The exhibition catalogue will feature an extended essay by David Lillington

Celestial Mechanics 2008 Animation