Ian Burns short review.

Ian Burns
15 Hours v4
2010

Found object Kinetic sculpture

The sculptural work “15 Hours v4” by Ian Burns grabbed my attention while walking through the space at the gallery of NSW initially because of its relationship to flight, which I love, but secondly as a sculptural piece which transported me into a different mind space, out of the gallery. But from my first proper look at the construction, I could tell that I should be focusing on what was going on behind the screen and not just take the video footage for granted.

This piece deals with creating a narrative of travel through video work but also engages us in understanding the aspects of production and how a video, which we believe to be a certain situation, is actually manufactured through a combination of completely different and unrelated objects. The only object in the entire piece that has any relationship to flight is one toy aircraft wing.

The elements coming together to form the image on the screen is comprised of brush handles, a toy wing and a slowly rotating disk of creased fabric. A cheap lamp attached to a wooden chair leg replicates the over saturation of light while above the clouds and an old digital clock radio attached to the top of the piece focuses on the time involved with travel as well as creating static sound which replicates the sound of air travel. At the rear of the work is a small fan blowing a container of ping-pong balls, which is rigged up to the wing, the fan creating slight motion which completes the atmospheric elements involved in creating the illusion we perceive as flight in the video.

I felt that in 15 Hours v4 and other pieces in the same show there was reference to old film making techniques, for example how a car interior would be created and a video of a street going past in the window would be played to replicate movement. The Idea of a manufactured narration and the way Burns lets the viewer see how the Image is produced was fantastic and made me love the piece more.

Through understanding that even through the use of random cheap objects, certain Ideas can be portrayed on the screen, I think I will question what I see in other visual media on a different level.