Tom Burr: Moods Exhibition at Secession – Exploring Identity Through Sculpture and Installation Art

Tom Burr's exhibition 'Moods' presents elegant arrangements of sculptures and objects that explore romantic desire and cerebral events. The works are loosely related, dividing the space into distinct areas and examining themes of identity, display, and instability.

The exhibition 'Moods' by Tom Burr showcases new and recent works that artfully combine sculpture and object arrangements, loosely organized to delineate different areas of the gallery. A central focus is a group of cage-like or catwalk-like objects that blur the lines between sculpture, boutique interiors, and set design, reminiscent of Giacometti or Klossowski. These pieces serve as integral pedestals, conceived as autonomous works capable of being displayed anywhere, playing with the artist's studio concept. Other elements, such as portable screens and figure-evoking objects, highlight constructions of subjectivity, display, and the instability of identity and space. The installations are augmented with found objects like clothing, mirrors, and books, acting as aesthetic surrogates for accessing past feelings and exhibiting remembrance. Burr's practice revisits sculptural discourse, addressing issues of site-specificity, contextuality, and theatricality. The exhibition questions the role of the author, not to reassert the artist as a genius director, but rather to explore the unstable foundations of identity and fleeting subjectivity. It references figures from art and literature, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Jean Cocteau, Truman Capote, and Jack Kerouac, the latter being the subject of a collage series. A notable piece involves a Jean Cocteau book nested in a Helmut Lang suit worn by Burr in the 1990s, creating a complex autobiographical reference. The exhibition also engages with Jack Pierson, developing an alter ego through references to a shared exhibition and further complicating this by introducing Jack Kerouac, ultimately questioning the fragility of constructed identities under the weight of literary and pop-cultural references. The 'Vanities,' resembling dressing tables with faded mirrors and Plexiglas structures, further explore themes of vanity, self-deception, and the transient nature of identity, evoking a Proustian atmosphere of borrowed selves.

Information regarding ticketing and admission can be found via the provided link to the Secession shop.