ED BURKES

Ed Burkes (B.1994) is a Painter currently based in East Cornwall.

‘My intent as an image maker is to paint through words. I am fascinated by the notion that narrative, truth and fiction can lend themselves to one another in a way that can offer up genuine questions. Words can in fact lie but feeling is universal in its potency. 

I think of the voice of painting as sitting somewhere between music & written language. My images evolve from drawings that I have made from life and it's about attempting to move in an honest direction. My Paintings act as question marks. All I want with my image-making is to ask questions.

I try and paint what I know but what I know is different to what I understand. I know feeling but I don’t understand it. This contradiction is Illuminating. False ground is self-sustaining. The inability, or the attempt to articulate, is the fuel and the fire to my work. It’s an attempt to arrive somewhere and the process is where meaning and significance lies.’

“Constantly observing, listening,

to try and illuminate the common threads 

that collectively bind us together

like a torch lighting the way.

A kind of fingerprinting or a brass-scratching,

feeling your way through the world.

With some nuance hope to offer up genuine questions.

The bones are always about trying to unbox abstract thought.

Wobbly ideas are often the most fruitful;

there can be clarity in the open ended question.

A love letter to strength and that tomorrow will be better.”