M.W. Burns at N.A.M.E - Chicago, Illinois - Review of Exhibitions

Art in America, Jan, 1995 by Susan Snodgrass

In his first solo exhibition, titled "Wilderness," M.W. Burns declares that "technology is inappropriate from its outset." Best known for his large-scale architectural installations, Burns here explores the seemingly antithetical relationship between technology and nature. Although the seven works gathered for this exhibition are various in medium (sculptural objects, photographs, audio texts and an installation), they share a common message: technology is a wilderness as savage and unpredictable as nature.

Unlike those modernists who embraced technology as an unambiguously ameliorative force, Burns pursues his investigation with humor and skepticism. Reflecting on the absurdities and contradictions of a society overly dependent on gadgetry and machinery for its survival, he plays on our fears by offering some of his own inventions. His skillfully crafted objects (boats, cars, birdhouses) are not ready-made, but fastidiously created by the artist to resemble their real-life prototypes, thus challenging the necessity for mechanized systems of production.

In his proposals for boats and motorized vehicles, represented here by two black-and-white photographs of models, Burns pokes fun at early modernism's fascination with mechanized power and speed. In Landscape (1993), a small car is designed for slipstream efficiency, but the absence of windows and visible controls suggests that the machine, not the individual, has the upper hand. For Kayak (1993), a life-sized vessel constructed from canvas and wood, and painted with a bright red enamel, Burns similarly alters the traditional design by creating four additional compartments with seats. But in his democratic attempt to accommodate more than one individual, the artist has rendered the boat useless, even dangerous.

In two related works, Birdhouse (1993) and Birdholes (1994), notions of functionality are further disrupted. The earlier piece, a small wooden birdhouse suspended from the ceiling, has been given so many entrance holes that it becomes a hollow frame without a purpose. In Birdholes, a large plywood wall punctured at irregular intervals with several perches and circular voids, the nesting habits of the titular creatures are made to conform to an arbitrary, chaotic scheme.

In the sound installation Blip (1994), the artist is most successful in questioning the power of the systems that bring technology into being. Here, the viewer stands between two large wall-mounted speakers that play an endless loop of spoken words, but what is actually said remains unintelligible. The technology of communication becomes a wilderness. Despite the endless possibilities we still imagine technology to hold, what happens, Burns asks, when these systems fail?