Robert Burden

Bio

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Toronto. In 2007, I graduated from the MFA program at SFAI. I was the 2007 recipient of the school's Irene Pijoan Memorial Painting Award. Recent exhibitions include “Cream From the Top” in Benicia, California, and a three-person show at the Andrea Schwartz gallery in San Francisco.

Statement

Using the symbols from other national or regional flags, these new banners, through random aesthetic choices, become confused and hybridized forms. The symbols, which may at first appear familiar, have been stripped of their meaning. The narratives behind the significance of the symbols, which once represented a specific group of people, have dissolved and become refracted. In the contemporary art scene, the regional or local has become either anthropology or kitsch. It is, however, the nomadic artist who is elevated to the status of a cultural superhero. He/She transcends the parochial notions of race, religion and nationalism. The nomadic artist of this increasingly globalized and pluralistic world is ready to take on the challenge of elucidating any and all peoples as to the state of their cultural narrative. The contemporary artist can often be described as a mercenary, totally adept in the “Arena of Exchange” as Nicolas Bourriaud puts it. But is it not the artist investing him/herself in the 'local' who will ultimately be the most effective producer of this 'sociability'? I do not believe I can speak for another, but as a Caucasian male from the culturally vague suburbs of Canada (a fairly new and historically amnesiac country), I envy the 'other'. The flags are abstractions. They neither oppose nor exalt the 'flag', but do both at the same time. They exalt the idea of belonging to a group, but they also mourn that very divisive desire we all inherently feel at some point. This contradiction is an issue I contemplate on a daily basis, whether it be as a global citizen, or more specifically, as a North American white male.