burtonwoodandholmes.com: PRESS CLIPPINGS

PRESS CLIPPINGS

CHICAGO JOURNAL

Tuesday May 8, 2007

Article by Timothy Inklebarger, May, 2007.
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TIME OUT CHICAGO

Thursday March 8, 2007

Review by Josh Tyson, March 2007.
For full article see here

August 17th 2006, interview by Frank Mathie.

From ABC7 news site, transcript of interview:

August 17, 2006 – Artists use all sorts of materials to create their works of art. Marble, oil paints, woods and metals, but a Chicago area couple put together an exhibit using none of the traditional materials.

Holly Holmes and Tom Burtonwood have assembled a controversial work made up of junk mail and cardboard.

It’s just under the “el” at State and Lake. At the city’s department of cultural affairs’“Open Studio” passersby have been able to watch artists at work for the past three years.

Artists like Holly Holmes and Tom Burtonwood are putting finishing touches on a very unusual exhibit featuring a twenty foot long tank.

“Well, it’s a tank covered in junkmail,” said Tom. “ And why? Well we’re interested in questions about the war and commerce and about things people buy and sell.”

They have wallpapered the entire space with sales fliers and junk mail. All the walls and that cardboard tank. But this is more than just anti war.

“It is also about waste and the sheets of junk mail that come to your door everyday,” said Holly. “We thought we’d put them to good use to help us make our point.”

Burtonwood and Holmes collected the sales sheets and junk mail from friends and supermarkets and it didn’t take long.

“Ooooh, probably about two weeks,” said Holly. “There’s that much out there.”

They took a model of an M1 Abrams tank, computerized it and then they built a three quarters sized version of it. It’s apparently very accurate but I still don’t understand what it’s all about.

“It’s junk mail so we stick this on the wall and put it on the tank,” said Tom. “Does the tank disappear into the background? That’s one of the questions we’re trying to raise. Is the war completely shrouded by the things we see in the media? All the products that are in front of us all the time?”

The exhibit will be on display through next Friday, August 25th. After the exhibit, it will be broken down and shipped to an exhibit in Miami, Florida.