“I think this work is in response to the sense of containment I sometimes feel, being as I am in my mid thirties, with a kind of unavoidable understanding of who I am, and what responsibilities I have. Not so many responsibilities to be honest, but enough that I no longer feel I can fly off and start some new life in a radically different future. Life is happening to me right now, it’s real, the unfolding present is inescapable.
That being said, I love my life, I often like this feeling of containment, I know where I am, it’s very grounding, and you can see I am happy in this work, cultivating a sense of contentment, dwelling above a candle which I think for me is a symbol of hope and imagination.”
Jack Burton (b.1988, Barry, South Wales) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. He is the studio assistant to Anselm Kiefer. His works can loosely be described as paintings, though they include a multi-media approach that includes both photography and collage. Influenced by movements such as pop, expressionism, abstract and street art, he merges each of these media within individual works to create an image where each jostles for primacy, and where the perceptions and expectations of each is also disrupted.