Jonathan McBurnie’s work is a reaction to the inescapable techno-capitalist status quo, holding up the tactile experiences of the studio as subversive and transgressive. McBurnie assumes the impossible tragedian role of a flesh and blood machine, hammering away in the studio, trying (and failing) to compete with the expanding digital sprawl. Chance plays a key part in the rapid image making process, as does a kind of disrupted, deliberately obscured autobiography. McBurnie approaches autobiography as something akin to the kayfabe of professional wrestling; that is, the continued adherence to invented on-screen or on-stage narratives, a dramaturgy separating of the public and private self. This tension is explored through studio practice through collage, graphic collision and materiality, the sublime and the ridiculous working hand in hand.

​

Jonathan's partner collection is Mad Max 2 Museum, Silverton.