{"id":3781,"date":"2012-10-18T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T23:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=3781"},"modified":"2012-10-18T15:23:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T23:23:00","slug":"pump-dump-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/18\/pump-dump-prosperity-3781\/","title":{"rendered":"Pump & Dump Prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on October 18, 2012 in The Alamedan<\/a>. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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David Burke at the opening of \u201cPump & Dump Prosperity.\u201d Photo: Michael Singman-Aste<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

When David Burke returned from a year and a half in Thailand last year, he felt a \u201cfracture.\u201d While there, \u201cI gave myself permission to indulge myself with the landscape, made paintings that celebrated the beauty of the landscape,” he says. “During that time I reconnected with the natural world and fell in love with it.\u201d Upon his return he found himself \u201cmourning the loss of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke, who currently resides in East Oakland but grew up in Alameda, moved into a studio at Autobody Fine Art on Park Street in the spring of 2011 and began work on his \u201cHungry Ghost\u201d series. He explains that in Chinese Buddhism that term describes \u201cspirits that have an insatiable appetite for unhealthy, addictive behavior.\u201d A recurring motif in this series is a gas mask, its hose like the proboscis of a malevolent elephant. A gas mask would be necessary in the toxic world he paints.<\/p>\n

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David Burke, \u201cGenetically Modified Atmosphere.\u201d Ink on Dura-Lar.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEven looking at the air quality of the paintings, they almost have a claustrophobic feeling to them,\u201d he says. They have a \u201cchemical taint\u201d like that in Ray Bradbury\u2019s post-butterfly-effect world.<\/p>\n

The mask is also a reference to the respirator Burke was forced to wear during a decade of painting with toxic polymer resin. While in Thailand he struggled with the disconnect of creating \u201cthese overly indulgent images of the environment\u201d while using such unhealthy material. So when he started \u201cHungry Ghost\u201d he ditched it in favor of non-toxic acrylic ink.<\/p>\n

Watching his paintings take shape is like watching rain drop from a leaf into a pond. He drips ink onto Dura-Lar, a polyester-based film, creating rippling concentric circles. \u201cThere\u2019s this control and chaos while I\u2019m making the piece,\u201d Burke says. \u201cI\u2019ll let it go, and then reel it in.\u201d He has said that his materials have an \u201cinherent wow factor,\u201d presenting the challenge of \u201ctrying to make a very quiet painting with very loud materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

He exhibits these paintings in \u201cPump & Dump Prosperity,\u201d a solo show that opened at Autobody on Saturday. Autobody formally closed its doors as an exhibition space in February 2011, but has since presented a handful of shows.<\/p>\n

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David Burke, \u201cCharming Couple.\u201d Ink on Dura-Lar.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cPump and dump\u201d usually refers to a form of fraud in which the value of a stock is artificially inflated. Burke says that in his work there are multiple meanings. \u201cIt is the pumping of oil and the dumping of waste,\u201d he continues. \u201cThe idea of pump and dump prosperity, talking about fraudulent stock exchanges and false prosperity, it relates to these (Hungry Ghost) spirits … that have this appetite for unscrupulous or devious behavior, or a behavior that undermines the greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n

His work responds to disasters both manmade and natural, and the confluence of the two. \u201cIn some of these paintings you have a tenuous balance between the natural world and the manmade world,\u201d he says. He painted \u201cLambent Waters Brood,\u201d a reference to a line from James Joyce\u2019s poem \u201cFlood,\u201d after the tsunami in Japan. \u201cRight around the same time we had the oil spill in the gulf,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I was thinking about natural disasters and manmade disasters and the relationship between the two … like the Earth pushing back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke doesn\u2019t see himself as just another artist \u201ccritiquing mankind and its assault on nature.\u201d Rather, his paintings are \u201cmore of a celebration of the perseverance of the natural world … The Earth is finding new ways to replenish itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pump & Dump Prosperity runs through November 5, with a closing reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. November 3. Autobody Fine Art is located at 1517 Park Street. They are open Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. http:\/\/www.autobodyfineart.com<\/a>, (510) 865-2608.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on October 18, 2012 in The Alamedan. Michele Ellson, editor.   When David Burke returned from a year and a half in Thailand last year, he felt a \u201cfracture.\u201d While there, \u201cI gave myself permission to indulge myself with the landscape, made paintings that celebrated the beauty of the landscape,” he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[73,118,476,486],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-alameda","tag-autobody-fine-art","tag-david-burke","tag-the-alamedan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-YZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3794,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions\/3794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}