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Contribution to ‘Fibremen’ Exhibition, 18th October, 2011 – 29th October 2011

Two of Burton’s large-scale textile artworks were selected by Ludmila Egorova, National Artists’ Union of Ukraine, member of the European Textile Network, for the group exhibition curated by international fibre artist Andrew Schneider that highlighted contemporary textile art works in all forms from male artists and focused on the identity of male-making in a domain that has traditionally – especially in Europe and the East – been the preserve of the female craftsperson. 33 artists from 14 countries took part in the exhibition. In the selected works Burton builds on the legacy of previous research practice. Both explore the process of making from 2-dimensional drawing and painting to the 3-dimensional garment form. The work 'Rauni' is informed by a sequence of forming and transforming; the photographic and digital being overlaid by the painted and drawn mark. The 'Embodied Journey' draws on his research into the ethnic textiles of India and its storytelling traditions in which painted fabrics in the form of scrolls were utilised. Burton sees this as parallel to the way he transforms graphic drawn images through textile techniques into the garment form. In these artworks the narrative is a dialogue between the materiality of the body and a mythology of embodiment evoked by the symbols and drawn elements on the surface of the garment, and the selection of the garment shapes themselves. As a legacy of this work Burton was invited to exhibit the following year in the 'Fibremen 2’ exhibition.