My Studio

“This work is quite simply a representation of my studio. At the time this photo was taken I liked the idea of being a novelist but never actually writing a book. I started telling people at openings and social events that I was working on a novel and I would make up a different story line each time. When they saw me next they would ask how the book was going and I would suck my teeth and explain a difficult plot point I was trying to resolve, and they would offer their own interpretations and solutions and I had many interesting conversations this way. I felt like one day I might really write this book so I didn’t feel I was being dishonest. The thing I liked the most about this period was how many people told me they had secretly written a novel themselves, how it became an addictive thing they did in private, but they would never ever show their book to anyone. A private book, isn’t that wonderful? Of course this all becomes an allegory about making art. Why do we do it? I don’t know, but I feel we have to, and life is more interesting because we do.”

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.