Deleuze argues that repetition is not mere replication but a means of producing difference. I use pattern and repetition in my drawings and sculptures to align with this concept. Each repeated element introduces a variation, a slight difference that accumulates to create a complex whole. I make each drawing by hand upon a matrix of sixteen rectangles subdivided into thirty two triangles. From this matrix I draw an isometric cube containing a pyramid and four columns. I employ a wide range of approaches to produce images that move these archetypal forms between different material states.
Dimension: 3.75 x 4.6"
Material: Ink and acrylic on Bristol vellum
Tom Burtonwood
(Austin)
Tom Burtonwood (b. United Kingdom) is a Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist, curator and educator. He/they are Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Like the critical theorist Deleuze, Burtonwood maintains a Baroque sensibility, a fascination with complexity, multiplicity, and the infinite play of forms. He/they hold an MFA from Southern Illinois University (USA) and a BA from Loughborough College of Art (UK). Burtonwood is co-founder of Chicago based creative studio, Happy Returns and a member of the international art collective videokaffe. Burtonwood is a board member and co-organizer of Terrain Exhibitions, an Oak Park based not for profit arts organization that makes private space public through sculpture, installation, performance and interventions. Apart from Terrain he/they have curated over twenty exhibitions of contemporary art working with Chicago - based artist run galleries GARDENfresh (2002 - 2009) and What It Is (2010 - 2015).