My wunderkammer, displayed for eight years straight at the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco. A temporary museum of second rate yet personal treasures, arranged here in accordance with Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth theory, also known as the Hero’s Journey.
Created for the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Centerpieces for gala event on the theme of education. Log, seed pod, turntable bearing, wire, beads, pages from a book on diamond production.
Exhibition and performance as Recology’s artist in residence at the San Francisco dump in 2011. Created on site during four month stay. Three of my orphans are represented here in this compilation film.
The poem written and performed for the exhibition can be found here.
I was also visited by Ed Humes, who’s book Garbology: Our Love Affair With Trash, is a stunner. The book is on our continued rampant production of absolute garbage and its resultant consequences. My poem Broken Turntable is included in its pages.
Recology’s press release: Benjamin Burke explores the concept of the “uncanny valley,” a term coined for robotics or animation that too closely resemble the human form—figures that are incredibly familiar, yet disturbingly wrong. For Burke’s cast of uncanny characters he has vivified found mannequins and other forms through lo-fi animatronics to create interactive assemblage pieces. Sculpture meets theater as this troupe of misfits become actors in a presentation which will include performances by Burke, whose interests lie in traditions of theatrical showmanship. Informed by carnival and vaudeville, Burke’s art incorporates fables, story-telling, and dark comedy to explore the magical or arcane, using the past to contextualize, or even reinvigorate the present. The works may channel the ghosts of performers of old, or perhaps just prompt a night of crazy dreams.
Displayed at the Exploratorium in San Francisco for Tinkerer’s Night. Boddington’s beer barrel, swinging ottoman parts, rope, enlarger bellows, model ship, coffee table, ceramic figurines, lightbulb.
