“Fix on, ok, looks outside. The tree. A tree. What kind of things, things out of a story. What lives in a tree? A bird. A bird lives in a tree, ok, ok what, ok what can this bird be doing, the bird ehhhh, maybe it’s not a bird maybe it’s a person. Maybe the person who wants to be a bird, ok, and what is that person trying to do and where is it going to go. What kind of story arc is it going to be doing? Ok, the start of the story, Ok, it’s a boy that wants to be a bird.
 
And it keeps going like that, like that’s how my brain would work, that’s my inner monologue.” He
 
The LAB invites you to this this solo exhibition by the 2011/12 recipient of the Irish Artist’Residential Studio Award, Alan-James Burns.
 
He explores the manner of thought through the audio / visual medium of interview. Examining the mental perspectives of our own cognitive mind and that of one individual, He creates a sensory journey that navigates understandings and interpretations of neurological processes. He questions what is it like to perceive as another.
 
He is a Noema of the Noesis
(Noema - object of a thought
Noesis - the mental process used in thinking)
 
The exhibition is accompanied by Performance Conditioning, a text written by the 2013 Dublin City Council Visual Artists Ireland Art Writing Award winner Joanne Laws., and two events, detailed overleaf.
 
Artist Biography
Alan-James Burns is a video and performance artist based in Dublin.
Selected exhibitions include: At the level of entity, The Lab, Cube space, Dublin (2013); Envelope, Ballina Arts Centre (2013); Watching the river flow, Centro de Artes Visuais, Portugal, (2012); Till the Cows Come Home, (solo exhibition) Cavan County Museum, February 2011.
Residencies include: Irish Residential Studio Award, Red Stables, Dublin (2011-2012); Cow House Studios, Wexford, (2011), Cyland Media Arts Lab, National Centre for Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, Russia. (2009). Awards include Fire Station Artists’ studios Digital Media Residency Award (2012), Cavan County
Council Arts Act Grant (2011 and 2009), and Arts Council Travel and Training award (2009). www.alanjamesburns.com
 
About The Irish Artist’s Residential Studio Award
 
The Irish Residential Studio Award is intended to support an emerging Irish visual artist at an early stage of their professional practice.
 
The Award includes:
• Studio and living accommodation at nominal rent of €200 per month for a one-year period- including light & heat
• Inclusion in Exhibition Programme at The LAB, Foley Street, Dublin 1.
• Administrative and curatorial support through Dublin City Council’s Arts Office.
• Internet Access.
 
The studio is located at the Red Stables in St Anne’s Park, Dublin 3, one of Dublin’s largest parks covering approximately 270 acres. The Red Stables Artists’ Studios aims to provide a working space for contemporary artists and to support artists in their investigation of ideas. The Red Stables has studio Open Days annually, a Summer School art programme, a café and a weekly Saturday Food Market.