29^th Jul 2016

The Last Straw

Professor Bill Burns presents the second part and second version of his ongoing project; a readymade libretto; the Art Review Power 100 List, a collaboration between Burns and Andrew Zukerman, this rendition sung and chanted by Zoe Alexis-Abrams and John Creson. This week’s version is less decipherable than last week’s but Gerhard Richter and Beatrix Ruff are discernible in what sounds like a Japanese Kabuki theatre production resulting in what could be a contemporary artist’s nightmare. Perhaps Burns wakes up in the middle of the night regretting lost opportunities, wishing he were more important, hoping to attach himself to the great and the good, resembling the Rupert Pupkin character played by Robert de Niro who goes to extreme lengths to supplant Jerry Lewis as The King of Comedy. Burns has so far stopped short of taking hostages. This is detached, third person, “brown-nosing” as art form, a dangerous strategy which could result in loss of identity (if it hasn’t happened already). I suspect that the long stretches in the Yukon might have affected this artist’s fragile psyche. The cornered Burns becomes defensive and evasive on occasion producing a petulant riposte: “This might be the last time I appear on this programme!”. A reading from “Hans Ulrich Obrist Help Us” focusses on a bizarre account of a curator’s swollen testicles. This might be the last time that Mr Burns guests on Wavelength. This is the last programme until September.