Bill Burns: The Salt, the Milk, the Goats, the Honey, the Donkeys, the Brass Band

Sunday October 15, 2023 | 1:00 to 3:00 pm
McMichael Collection
10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, ON L0J 1C0
Starting beside the Tom Thomson Shack

In 2017, Bill Burns embarked on a series of happenings with donkeys, goats and honeybees high in the Swiss Alps, far-flung Patagonia and beyond. This is an exceptional event bringing together many elements of his performance about trade, farming and ecology.  Now in 2023, the McMichael Collection will host The Salt, the Milk, the Goats, the Honey, the Donkeys, the Brass Band on Sunday October 15. It will be one of Bill Burns’ most ambitious performances to date and will bring several parts of the project to Canada for the first time. There will be milk, there will be honey, there will be goats, there will be donkeys, there will be salt and there will be a brass band.  A word to the wise do not try this at home.

1:00 PM The Entrance of Animals with the Brass Band
1:30 PM The Honey Spinning & the Goat Milking
1:45 PM The Second Entrance of the Donkeys
2:00 PM The Mixing of the Salt and the Milk and the Honey
2:30 PM The Final Parade

Bill Burns is grateful for the generous support of the Alfred Richterich Stiftung – Switzerland; MKG127 – Toronto; the Canada Council for the Arts; and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Bill Burns grew up in a bookselling family in Saskatchewan where he learned about art, music and tractors from monks, poets and farmers. He studied art and other things at Goldsmiths’ College, London. His work about global trade, animals and advanced industrialism has been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, ICA, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Mendes Wood Gallery, Sao Paulo; the Museum of Art, Seoul, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Bill is also the artistic director of the Dogs and Boats and Airplanes Children’s Choir that has produced live performances and audio works in Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil and Argentina. He is represented by MKG127, Toronto.

Also on view at the McMichael is Uses of Enchantment, curated by Sarah Milroy which features works by Bill Burns as well as Shary Boyle, Carrie Allison, Shuvinai Ashoona, Qavavau Manumie, Sara Angelucci and Winnie Truong. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays on each of the artists, and a foreward by McMichael Chief Curator, Sarah Milroy. Uses of Enchanment is on view at the McMichael until October 29, 2023.