ROSE MCBURNEY

Artist Statement

Using myself as subject along with family and strangers, I construct compositions in which clothed figures either alone or in groups express existential feelings through gesture. Taking refuge in grainy degraded color pallets referencing the past and relying on strong light sources I reduce my figures to their pithy bulk. Although I am alarmed at times by the resulting effect, it is the calmness that arises from the figure’s diffuse circuity and the negative space around them that serves as a counterpoint. My work ultimately relies on the balance of opposing forces and their tension as a place of inquiry. In some of my darker pieces this can be expressed as anger squashed down, resigned to weirdness, with a comic edge that acts as a loophole to save me from the double bind of the human condition.