In Heaven, Love Come First (2019)
Collaborative Installation with Dulcee Boehm (www.dulceeboehm.com)
Collaborative Installation with Dulcee Boehm (www.dulceeboehm.com)
Show Statement
In Heaven, Love Comes First focuses on the ways both human and non-human bodies are presented at county and state fairs. From people to pie, fairs have hosted competitions for over 100 years in the United States to hone agricultural productivity and promote shared farming methods. Simultaneously, fairs are intensely social, locally idiosyncratic and include traditions worth both celebration and critique. Through video, almost-familiar sculpture, and installation, fairs are looked at closely as rich and complicated cultural institutions.
Boehm and Burke work alongside theoretical contexts in animal studies, materials studies, and question the often-gendered preparations and presentations of bodies at fair. Both artists attend to fair culture with a sense of humor and a critical lens, from the perspective of having lived experiences in 4-H and showing horses in the Midwest. To reference the spectacular qualities of fair the artists acutely focus on materials and display tactics ordinary to the space of arenas, judging tables, and fairgrounds. The works reveal personal traditions and materials as peculiar, feminized, and flamboyant in presentation and application. Boehm and Burke are interested in the various forms of work and participation at the fair; by visitors and competitors, humans and animals alike.
This project was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
In Heaven, Love Comes First focuses on the ways both human and non-human bodies are presented at county and state fairs. From people to pie, fairs have hosted competitions for over 100 years in the United States to hone agricultural productivity and promote shared farming methods. Simultaneously, fairs are intensely social, locally idiosyncratic and include traditions worth both celebration and critique. Through video, almost-familiar sculpture, and installation, fairs are looked at closely as rich and complicated cultural institutions.
Boehm and Burke work alongside theoretical contexts in animal studies, materials studies, and question the often-gendered preparations and presentations of bodies at fair. Both artists attend to fair culture with a sense of humor and a critical lens, from the perspective of having lived experiences in 4-H and showing horses in the Midwest. To reference the spectacular qualities of fair the artists acutely focus on materials and display tactics ordinary to the space of arenas, judging tables, and fairgrounds. The works reveal personal traditions and materials as peculiar, feminized, and flamboyant in presentation and application. Boehm and Burke are interested in the various forms of work and participation at the fair; by visitors and competitors, humans and animals alike.
This project was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
Perfect Prep from Ruth K. Burke on Vimeo.