YYZ is pleased to host the Toronto launch of Bill Burns latest project.

Join us Saturday February 18 2:00 to 5:00 PM.

Bill Burns is launching a new recording of Country Songs About Donkeys, Milk, Honey and Trade featuring Marshall Burns (his nephew) –  a 7 inch record produced by the Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina.

Country Songs About Donkeys, Milk, Honey and Trade

In 2018 Bill Burns walked up a mountain in the Swiss Alps at a place called Atelier Amden. He was accompanied by two donkeys who carried a load of salt from the local salt mines.  At the apple orchard he traded salt for a few apples and at the beekeeper’s house he traded a few apples for honey. At the top of the mountain he served apples drizzled with honey and a pinch of salt to a small crowd of people .

In 2021 Bill walked through the copse near the Humber River in Toronto with a brass band, a group of Georgian Chanters, three goats, a pair of donkeys, a load of salt and a beekeeper.  After the salt was unloaded and the honey was rendered the goat keeper milked the goat. Now at the Oculus Pavilion Bill mixed the milk and honey and salt together in a pot using a Bunsen burner.

In 2022 at Regina, Saskatchewan as part of his project at the Dunlop Art Gallery, Bill commissioned his nephew Marshall Burns to write and a group of talented country singers to sing songs about his donkey walk in Switzerland as well as his goat milking and honey rendering events in Regina, Argentina and Toronto. The results were a joyful walk about Victoria Park in Regina and the 7 inch 45 rpm record that we are launching on February 18 at YYZ.

This project is supported by Dunlop Art Gallery, curated by Tomas Jonsson. We thank YYZ Artists’ Outlet for supporting this project launch.

Jacket and label design by Shannon Griffiths.

Music by Marshall Burns

Lyrics by Marshall Burns with notes from Bill Burns

Produced by Marshall Burns and Christopher Sleightholm

Recorded and Mixed by Christopher Sleightholm at Song Has No End Studio

Mastered by Orion Paradis

Side A

The Milk and the Honey:

Marshall Burns – Vocals, Guitar, Wooden Spoons

Christopher Sleightholm – Bass

Brigid McNutt – Fiddle

Side B

A Ballad of Two Donkeys:

Marshall Burns – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

Christopher Sleightholm – Baritone and Slide Guitar, Wooden Block

Andy Beisel – Mandolin

This recording is made as part of a collaboration with Bill Burns’  ongoing project about advanced industry, animals and trade known as The Salt, the Milk, the Donkey, the Honey, the Country Singers.

This production is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and Saskatchewan Lotteries.  Bill Burns thanks Roman Kurzmeyer, the Atelier Amden, Alfred Richterich Stiftung, Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts, for their generous support. YYZ is grateful for the generous funding of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

BILL BURNS was born into a book selling family in Regina, Saskatchewan. He received an MA from Goldsmiths College in London. His work about nature and civil society has been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul. He has published more than a dozen artist books and audio recordings with national and international publishers. He has been Artistic Director of the Dogs and Boats and Airplanes choir since 2010. Burns lives in Toronto, Canada.

His most recent titles include A Book About the Power 100, published by Verlag Mark Pezinger, Vienna (2018) and Hans Ulrich Obrist Hear Us, published by YYZBOOKS and Black Dog Publishing, London, UK (2016). His artists’ editions are included in collections at Tate Britain, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Getty Center, Los Angeles. Mr Burns is also Artistic Director of the Dogs and Boats and Airplanes Experimental Children’s Choir. The choir has produced live performances and audio works at festivals in Australia, Argentina, the UK and Canada.

Bill Burns studied under Mowry Baden at University of Victoria, Canada and with Gerard Hemsworth and John Latham at Goldsmiths College, London, England.

More info can be found here: https://dunloplearning.ca/exhibitions/bill-burns-exhibition#artists