Review by Marisa Plumb of ISTW / TWSM in New City 06/19/08
Tuesday July 8, 2008
Bit late getting this on the web but it’s an a really good review of the recent show, Marisa Plumb hits the nail on the head.
As always flickr has the archive of our photos from the show…
I Support The War / The War Supports Me
Monday May 19, 2008
UPCOMING EXHIBITION
View work in progress
Burtonwood & Holmes
“I Support the War / The War Supports Me (ISTW / TWSM)”
GARDENfresh Gallery, Chicago, IL
...Also in the other half of the gallery Alain Douglas Park presents “Pedestal” an exhibition of new work
Artists reception: Friday May 30th, 6 – 10pm
Exhibition continues through June 28th
Gallery hours Fri + Sat noon – 5pm
or by appointment
“… the real business of the War is buying and selling. The murdering and the violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals… True war is a celebration of markets.” —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
Just over five years on since President Bush announced “Mission Accomplished” on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, artists Burtonwood and Holmes present a new exhibition I Support the War / The War Supports Me (ISTW/TWSM). With this exhibition the artists mark a return to heroic scale painting combined with an all-encompassing installation to assault the viewer with an all over experience of consumption and excess.
“…Logistics is the procedure following which a nation’s potential is transferred to its armed forces, in times of peace as in times of war…” –Paul Virilio, Pure War
For this exhibition at GARDENfresh Gallery the artists split their exhibition space in half.
The first section presents a new installation (Zeitgeist) MMIII – MMVIII that draws upon contributions from over twenty visual artists from the Chicago area. B+H have painted scenes from the Iraq war on directly on the walls of the gallery and invited artists to hang their own art works on top of these painted areas. The images of warfare and violence provide a lens through which we can re-interpret the art works displayed as products of a nation at war.
The artists will wall paper the second section in their trade mark junk mail and sales fliers, to surround the viewer on all sides with everyday images from the grocery store. In this environment B & H have placed interventions in the form of inflatable decoy balloons coupled with small scale diorama pieces all camouflaged with the same marketing material.
Over 5 years ago in the run up to the Iraq war artists Holly Holmes and Tom Burtonwood began a body of work to protest the upcoming conflict and explore the wider implications of materiel culture. In 2006 the artists produced a 3/4 scale sculpture of an Abrams battle tank at the Open Studio Residency in downtown Chicago, an old store front across from the new ABC 7 TV studio. Recent exhibitions include Consuming War at the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago) curated by Barbara Koenen, Capla Kesting Fine Art (Brooklyn) and Subtle Combat at Around the Coyote (Chicago) curated by Alison Stites.
GARDENfresh is an artist run space in Chicago.
Artists reception: Friday May 30th, 6 – 10pm
Exhibition continues through June 28th
Gallery hours Fri + Sat noon – 5pm
or by appointment
I Support the War / The War Supports Me (ISTW/TWSM)
Saturday May 10, 2008
Preview Year 5 at Capla Kesting Fine Art
Saturday March 22, 2008
We’ve got some paintings and small sculpture at CKFA in Brooklyn, show opens Sat 29th, so if you’re in NYC for Armory try and make it out to the show!!
CKFA Presents:
Preview Year Five
March 29 – April 13, 2008
Reception for the Artist: Saturday March 29 from 7:00 – 10:00 pm
121 Roebling Street (at the corner of North 5th) Brooklyn NY 11211
Bedford Ave L train Stop
Saturday and Sunday from Noon until 7:00 pm or by appointment
Admission is free to the public phone : 917-650-3760
http://www.caplakesting.com
For Immediate Release:
CKFA is pleased to announce the advent of our fifth year with Preview Year Five, a glimpse of the artists we are exhibiting throughout 2008. With over 11 exhibitions slated at CKFA our full schedule of events includes the artists, BiPolArt, The Yum Yum Factory, Daniel Edwards, Brian Leo, Jonny Fenix, Ray Sell, James Turek, Lisa Kuppinger, Jerry Foust, Chris Georgalas, Nick Dyball, Holly Holmes, Scott Ferguson, Ezra Talmatch, Shawn Bishop-Leo, Burtonwood & Holmes.
Opening reception Consuming War
Monday November 5, 2007
Selected images from the opening of Consuming War at the Hyde Park Art Center.
Installation view of Price War!, front and center with Ellen Rothernberg’s installation to the left and Harold Mendez wall piece on the right.
Mary Brogger sculpture in foreground, Ellen Rothenberg installation in background.
Concert for Malachi, opened the exhibition. Michael Zerang and Jim Baker perform works honoring their friend, Malachi Ritscher, on the anniversary of his death in protest of the Iraq war.
Michael Rakowtiz installation.
For the complete flickr set of the opening click here. Thanks to everyone who came out!
Consuming War at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
Friday November 2, 2007
Price War! (preview image), dimensions variable, Polyurethane and filament line, 2007
Consuming War
November 4 – Janury 20, 2008, Gallery 1
Works by Lynda Barry, Wafaa Bilal, Mary Brogger, Adam Brooks, Burtonwood & Holmes, Michael Hernandez de Luna, Fred Holland, Harold Mendez, Michael Rakowitz, Ellen Rothenberg, Edra Soto, Paula White and Dolores Wilber.
Curated by Barbara Koenen
Focusing on the U.S. conflict in the Middle East over the past 10 years, Consuming War addresses the ways the American media and consumer culture have manipulated and influenced our perceptions of war, often turning it into a spectacle for American consumption. While war is an underlying theme in all the works, each addresses the concept of war, and our relationship to it, from a variety of angles, creating pieces that range from political cartoons to sculptures that recreate the archeological artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq and large suspended papier mâché bombs made from sale advertisements. Timely in its subject matter, Consuming War offers an innovative platform in which the complex and multifarious connections between war, capitalism, American consumer culture, and our everyday live can be re-situated and critically examined.
The Art Center thanks those who gave individual contributions to the exhibition, including Craig Ahmer, Jane Fulton Alt, Sidney Barton, Kim Freiders, Connie Gillock, John Himmelfarb and Molly Day, Esther Grimm, Justine Jentes and Daniel Kuruna Laurel Lipkin, Jackie Kazarian and Peter Cunningham, Paul Klein, Barbara Koenen and Tim Samuelson, Harold Olin, Karen Paluzzi Steele, Laura Samson, Eva Silverman, Paula White, and Roberta Zabel.
Consuming War is supported by
Newcity Chicago
The American Adademic Research Institute in Iraq
Experimental Station
EVENTS......
For a full list of events for the show click here
We will be participating in a panel discussion Talk Back: Buyer Beware, on Wednesday, December 12, 6-8 pm Artist panel with Tom Burtonwood and Holly Holmes, Frederick Holland and Michael Hernandez de Luna
p.s. a big THANK YOU to Connie Gillock and Paul Klein who support made this piece possible.
\\\NEW\\\Crocodile Tears ---> B&H t-shirts
Sunday October 21, 2007
Met with INTHANG in London and got some new shirts…
Will update with sizes and color combos soon…...
London was fun, XXpenszve will update alzo soon.
Bridge Art Fair London
Tuesday October 2, 2007
We’re off to London next week to showing with GARDENfresh at the Bridge Art Fair (full disclosure—- Tom works for Bridge), it’s the first London edition and promises to be a lot of fun if ungodly expensive. The fair will take place at the Trafalgar Hotel, in Trafalgar Square. We’re showing some new collages which we’re really excited about. If you’re in London and can make it to the fair come to room 412 at the Trafalgar Hotel and say hi to Holly who will be manning the GF stand. GARDENfresh will also have work by UK artists Julie West, Nick Deakin and Ruth Pringle; Chika Ito & Massimo Arena from the Netherlands; and the stateside GF clan: Ketner, Hofer, Park and Rigsby.
Even A Small Lie Is Dangerous, 11 × 17 inches, collage on paper, 2007
Divergent Emergence, group show Evanston IL
Tuesday October 2, 2007
Test Market, site specific installation, paper cut, approx 48 × 72 inches, Open Studio, Evanston, IL
Group show at Open Studio, Evanston, IL. September 29th – October 12th, 2007. Open Studio, 903 Sherman Ave, Evanston, IL. Featuring work by Scott Aquino, Emily Asboe, Dan Cochrane, Ginger Conroy, Edgar Cuarezma, Burtonwood % Holmes, Tao Jaure, Scott Johnson, Lisa Kuppinger, Doug Leinen, Marilyn Madden, Heath Marks, Tom Pedersen, Ryan Scheidt, Eugene Smith, Barb Wieland.
Flickr set of the show
Flickr set of installation
Crocodile Tears ---> B&H t-shirts
Tuesday October 2, 2007
B & H now have t-shirts, printed by our good friends Chika and Massimo in the Netherlands. These t-shirts are hand printed on organic cotton tees. The series is titled “Crocodile Tears” and features our Apache motif on a background of dutch junk mail. Colors right now are black and ivory, size large only, new colors and sizes coming soon. Only $25 plus shipping. Email to order and we’ll send you a paypal request.