Ryan Burns

My "Biodiscourse" series—an ongoing investigation transforms environmental grief into hope, making invisible ecological processes visible

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Voting for the Top 20 ends Thursday the 14th of May at 7PM PDT

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What is your favorite type of art to create?

I create work at the intersection of documentation and transformation. Mono-ha (Japan, late 1960s) emphasized direct engagement with raw materials—stone, wood, steel—arranged to reveal inherent properties. Arte Povera (Italy, 1960s-70s) similarly used humble, organic materials to critique consumerism and connect art to natural processes. My Climate Proxies series shares both philosophies: graphite rubbings honor materials' essential nature like Penone's tree casts, while collaged ephemera functi

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in the margins—where natural systems collide with human infrastructure. Forests recovering from disaster, debris fields after storms, abandoned industrial sites being reclaimed by vegetation. These transitional spaces reveal nature's resilience and vulnerability simultaneously. I'm drawn to scientific research on climate patterns, indigenous ecological knowledge, and philosophical texts exploring our relationship with materiality. Penone's tree interventions, Smithson's entrop

What would you do with $25,000?

Rent a work/live studio provide space to expand my practice beyond portable techniques. I could build larger installations, work with heavier materials like the concrete/copper sculptures I envision, and store climate-felled tree sections for extended documentation. Living where I create allows continuous material observation—watching patinas develop, surfaces weather—integrating art-making into daily rhythms.

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