Jason Burgess discusses his deep dive into the character and work of a group of artists to whom he loosely calls “outliers”. This engaging interview outlines his motivations and entry into a world he fits most comfortably .

“Broadly speaking, I feel like a bit of an outlier myself, I’m not fashionable, I’ve never been fashionable, but I come from a place of integrity.

My series of conversations with artists in their studios began in 2016 as an enquiry into the world of New Zealand assemblage art. I had been inspired by the work of the late Peter Sauerbier and a 1965 British art book called Private View (Robertson / Russell / Snowden), a photo portrait of artists in their studios.

With Peter’s assemblage work in mind I set out cold-calling to see how many artists I could find working in assemblage or ‘found object art’. I would visit their studios, have a chat, shoot some frames, blog about our conversations. Magically the trail of artists grew organically as one suggested another. Yet while assemblage of some kind found its way into most art practices, assemblage per se was no longer my guiding light. More and more, I was meeting artists with distinct visual languages that often contrasted sharply with the homogenized mainstream obsessed with political correctness, apps and social media.” – Jason Burgess