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14/3/2002

Franco Angeloni presents

Shores Space, Amsterdam

Brigette Burns Laguna beach based artist

History: Santa Ana (Southern California) Cal State University Fullerton Grand Central Art Center. May June 2001 “Win a trip to Roma or Amsterdam Contest” by Franco Angeloni.

In April 2001, I was invited by Mike McGee (Gallery Director at CSUF) to be an artist-in-residence at California State University Fullerton(Los Angeles). The residency included a period of research on my own work, lecturing at the University, organizing workshops, interacting with the students and community there, and setting up a project of my own choice at the end of the residency period.
After having some close contact with the local community and making interesting acquaintances. I began to focus on characteristics of the California life-style: people’s attitudes, needs, interests, and life aspirations. After careful consideration of the people and the place, I decided the most appropriate project would be to arrange a Contest to give away two Cultural trips to Europe: one to Rome, the other one to Amsterdam.
(Air flight and 10 days Hotel stay, all paid by CSUniversity Fullerton). At the University satellite gallery Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, I set up a site-specific installation. Besides objects, wall sculptures, texts, digital prints, etc…. , the main frame of this project consisted of 4 large boxes which, standing in the gallery during the official opening, were used by the public to enter the contest by simply filling out a form. Each of the four collection-boxes was labelled respectively: Single man, Single woman, Married couple, Unmarried couple.

I collected about 400 applications. I selected at random 5 candidates out of each box. I visited the 20 candidates at their respective homes and interviewed them as to the reason why they wanted to win this trip.
The interviews took place across a large area of Southern California. I video-recorded and photographed my driving journeys to and meetings with the candidates. Eventually, I made my choice and during a second reception at the Grand Central, with great suspense, I announced the final winners.
Brigette Burns is one of them.
The video-recordings, photographs, etc…, that I collected during the process of this project and the subsequent documentation of the winner’s trip to Europe, are going to be published as a CD-Rom. For this documentary CD-Rom both the Dutch Consulate and The Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles have offered financial support.
I did not organize this Contest because I am a benefactor. As an artist, beside the mere Art practice, I am very interested in creating strong links between people and nations. I find the resulting interaction from such links usually leads to stimulating new developments and it contributes to an ongoing discourse about the evolution of Art.

I chose the winners on the basis of a number of factors: both winners have an Art education background, are interested in Mass-Media communication, engage in social criticism, and are very keen to strike intercultural links. Also, both of them, I hope, are going to extend these links and to create further connections between Southern Californians and Dutch(and Italian) residents(artists).

On the occasion of Brigette Burns visit to Amsterdam, I have organized, in cooperation with Rob v/d Schoor, an exhibition at Shores Space Gallery. The exhibition consists of a series of paint-chips drawings by B. Burns, a sequence of slides on the unique character of Laguna beach street life, and a documentary video-interviews that I made during the selection process of the final winners of the original Contest.
Franco Angeloni.

Brigette Burns(1965), is a painter who draws images on colourful industrial paint chips. She uses the pre-fabricated titles of the paint chips as a base from which to investigate the use of common yet provocatively juxtaposed subject matter. She intentionally delineates the patterns of narrative through repetition and rearrangement. Although the paint chips resemble a cinematic storyboard, the images move in random order and do not have a beginning or an end. ( B.Burns says: “I give attention to the arranging and rearranging of the colors much like the use of paint, and the titles of the colors are often used as a structural poem. I organize, plan and then rearrange over and over. After the colors are chosen a lot of the work involves chance, after which I then use a very small brush and ink to draw the images”)

Special thanks to: Mirjam Westen, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem(NL), Mike McGee and Andrea Harris of CSUF California State University Fullerton

Shores Space
St Annenstraat 28, Amsterdam
0031-20-6185657

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