Ed Burnand graduated from Camberwell College of Art in 2002 with a BA Hons in Fine Art Painting. After graduation Ed Burnand was involved in a number of group shows in London and the South of England with a solo show at the Brighton Arts Centre in 2004. In 2006 he re-trained as a Cabinet-Maker/furniture designer working on a large number of private domestic projects and architectural/interior design projects in the commercial sector. Since 2017 his has re-focused on his art practise. He lives and works in London with his young family.
My practice has developed over recent years to establish deeply personal ways of making marks on multiple surfaces and explore multidimensional premises through a variety of media. This allows for the creation of proto-narratives and environments, universally open to their own interpretation, but all informed by a theme or set of boundaries.
The common technical thread is a multi-stage process of experiment, refinement and application, that integrates abstract, natural, mechanical and architectural features. Within this framework, specific bodies of work have developed, characterised by one or more of the three main themes of my practise, opening up different points of departure.
Whilst material systems and processes are strong aspects of my practise, there is also a context or framework that extends beyond these principles. One such theme is the relationship between utopian idealism and dystopian ruin; a dialogue that plays out on parallel lines. These polarising positions exist concurrently, communicating ideas of personal and collective memory, the death of Empire, the ebb and flow of civilisations, culture, environment and human legacy including our self-imposed break from the natural world.
The utopian narrative is often realised only through our imagination. This haunting failure perpetuates an aspiration to fix and build anew, often at the expense of biodiversity. For every relic of a harmonious era stands another representing decline.
