Posts Tagged ‘anxiety’
List of Anxieties for Anxious Times
In August of 2009, I interviewed Jon for Heeb Magazine, and he mentioned how he was anxious about writing a guest piece for a UK publication called The Anxious Times. Well, the magazine came out, and boy is it glorious. I had no idea magazines like this existed. Sporting a celebrity cover, it includes stories with tantalizing titles like “COMPULSIVE HOARDING PODCAST” and “Anxiety UK Joins the British Toilet Association (BTA) Campaign for Better Public Toilets.” The fact that you folks across the pond have both this magazine AND a BTA just makes me want to sanitize my hands, walk in and out the door 3 times and board a plane ASAP.
Anyhow, enough about me. Jon got a two-page spread I’ve taken the liberty of scanning below. He talks about the role of anxiety in his art shows like Because I Can’t Sit Still and Anxiety Room. He lists 21 Anxieties, including #7: “My favourite pens being discontinued.” My favorite bit is this quote, which I, maybe some of you, and most likely Mr. Woody Allen, relate to:
I’ve started trying to harness [anxiety's] debilitating energy into something useful. If it’s going to make me act in a strange way, I might as well use it for the entertainment of others or even myself.
Click the image below to read the full article.
I Am Anxious T-Shirt
This is the terrific T-shirt Jon and Jim made for the Anxiety Room show. It’s great for me because it eliminates the need to disclose anxiety. I wear my heart on my sleeve and my neurosis on my chest. The shirt features a front and back collaborative design by both artists. $25 from Factory Fresh while available!
Anxiety Room
Of course it’s my luck that Jon would make a rare appearance across the pond, and I’m still stuck across the country. On February 12th, 2009, Jon and pop artist Jim Avignon opened Anxiety Room at Brooklyn, NY’s Factory Fresh. The show continues to explore a theme familiar to Burgerman fans (as seen in sculptures like WorryKnott and the London installation, Anxiety Wall). In addition to many paintings, drawings and masks, the duo collaborated on a live painting called Anxiety Broom. I got the “Too Many Emails” drawing! The rest of what’s still available can be found here. Check out a few work-in-progress photos sent by Jon at ToyCyte and pics from the show on Flickr here. Videos below the photos, too.
Anxiety Wall Drawings
If you could get rich off anxiety, let’s just say I’d be a wealthy man. Unfortunately, anxiety is no fast track to early retiring, but perhaps, at least, a catalyst to creativity. As part of Jon’s Because I Can’t Sit Still, he created the Anxiety Wall–a sprawling installation of ink drawings wallpapering the entire back of the gallery. When the show ended, Jon dismantled the wall and availed each individual piece of artistic neuroses to his fans via his webshop. The original drawings, signed and chosen by Jon went for £10 ($15 USD) each plus postage and are currently sold out. I got a great doodle on green paper.
WorryKnott
WorryKnott is a collaborative desktop sculpture between Jon and Stuart Witter of the UK-based Lowlife Collective. Each hand-cast white resin sculpture is approximately 135×120x80mm and comes hand numbered and signed along with a metal WorryKnott pin. It is finished in a protective lacquer. Strict edition of 50 for about £50.00 each.
WorryKnott charts the inevitability of getting tangled up in anxiety and its ultimate choking futility. It is the first time one of Jon Burgerman’s intricately doodled compositions has been rendered as a sculpture. These were/art available through Jon’s webshop and Concrete Hermit. I have #40. I get tangled up in anxiety often.
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