Sebastian Buerkner: Emotion Machine

Opening Tuesday 13 May 19.00 - 21.00 hrs

The Showroom is delighted to announce that it is working with Animate Projects on a co-commission of new animation works by Sebastian Buerkner. The resulting show Emotion Machine will be presented at The Showroom through May and June this year.

Buerkner is one of the most innovative artists working with animation today. His sophisticated visual language, elaborately drawn in Flash, is preoccupied with the creation of parallel or fantasy worlds that often defy logic and challenge our understanding of space and time. Buerkner’s layered and fragmentary imagery seems to suggest incomplete memories, or provide tantalising glimpses into the artist’s subconscious through the perspective of his films’ subjects. The effect is a dizzying sense of disorientation, often augmented by Buerkner’s use of split screen or multiple projections which, combined with his use of repetition and almost stroboscopic editing, mean that the viewer is left trying to grasp or piece together an elusive narrative thread.

His work for The Showroom and Animate Projects will comprise a series of newly commissioned monitor-based works and a large-scale projection. These works will attempt an analytical investigation into the presentation of emotional states using animation – Buerkner will draw from his visual lexicon to create associations between particular emotions and values such as speed, weight, colour, form and sharpness. Through the process of editing together rapidly changing, rich and complex imagery, Buerkner’s aim is to disrupt the viewer’s ability to read and process the images presented thereby unlocking the door into their own subconscious.

Sebastian Buerkner has made projects for Kohlenhof Kunstverein Nurnberg, Whitechapel Project Space, London and LUX at Lounge Gallery, London. He has also participated in group shows and screenings at Site Gallery, Sheffield, Tate Liverpool, Barbican, London and Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. His film Purple Grey (2006) was broadcast as part of AnimateTV on Channel 4. Sebastian Buerkner currently lives and works in London.

Sebastian Buerkner
Emotion Machine