SAFETY GEAR FOR SMALL ANIMALS, 1994
- Objects

With subtle humour, Bill Burns explores the wonders of nature and human life in his objects, photographs, multiples, artist’s books and installations.

Safety Gear for Small Animals is an extensive project staged in the form of a complex enterprise, specifically the world’s largest manufacturer of safety equipment for small animals. The artist is the CEO and the enterprise includes a research and development department, production units, a surgical appliance programme, a publishing house and a travelling museum. At RETHINK Kakotopia, a selection of safety gear is put on display, e.g. safety vests, helmets and protective goggles; all shaped like the human-sized equipment familiar from our everyday lives, but scaled down to suit small birds, mice, frogs etc.

The startling contrast between the familiar equipment and the sizes in which it appears here evokes an immediate sense of the animals’ fragility and vulnerability, but also of man’s own vulnerability. The disparity foregrounds the absurdity of the various protective measures we devise in order to safeguard ourselves against the changes in nature.

Bill Burns lives and works in Vancouver and London. His work is primarily based on sculpture, interactive material, photography, multiples and processing everyday material – with which he investigates the puzzling aspects of nature and human life with a touch of irony. 

On a general level, Bill Burns has an analytic and reflective eye for society, which is often expressed by using unaffected assistants or recipients of the artwork, like for instance animals or children. By presenting us with an innocent take on society, Burns puts its mechanisms in perspective, ultimately making us reflect on our way of life. 

Bill Burns’ first project was exhibited at 303 Gallery in New York in 1994, yet his real breakthrough was the work “Safety Gear for Small Animals” on display for the first time in New York in 1994. Since then, the artwork was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Havana, Buenos Aires, Loa Angeles and Seoul. In addition, Bill Burns has published quite a few books, for instance When Pain Strikes from 1999 and most recently Bird Radio from 2007