A.K. Burns’s largest solo exhibition to date considers the intersection between the human, nonhuman, and the environment—and the value systems that guide our perceptions of each.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the science-fiction epic Negative Space, comprising four multichannel video installations that explore the relationship of marginalized bodies to resources, space, and technology. Rethinking how we might approach queer world-building, Negative Space is a poetic work where the environment is the protagonist and performers act as concepts. Drawing on threads of current events, art history, and allegory, the project takes place in what the artist refers to as the “speculative present,” an imagined moment where boundaries are permeable, and hierarchies are thrown into question. 

For the first time, viewers will be able to experience the complete Negative Space tetralogy. Each installation investigates a physical system: A Smeary Spot (2015), the void; Living Room (2017), the body; Leave No Trace (2019, making its US premiere), land; and a new Wex-commissioned work that completes the series, What is Perverse is Liquid (2023), which focuses on water. The videos include performers from Burns’s community of artists, choreographers, and musicians, as well as soundtracks scored by Geo Wyex.

Sculptures and wall works that build on themes in Negative Space, created concurrently over the past decade, will also be on display. A forthcoming catalogue copublished by the center and Dancing Foxes Press will feature an interview with Burns and curator Karen Archey, along with contributions by Mel Y. Chen, CAConrad, Megan Hicks, Aruna D’Souza, and Simone White.

"Negative space is generally understood as the between, under, inside, and around space; the atmosphere; the unseen matter…it has its own agency that it is unfixed, dynamic, changeable, and ultimately an open set of possibilities."

A.K. Burns