October 2026

60 years of archival collection and the stories behind its making, accumulation and dispersal, being prepared for a forthcoming survey exhibition of his work at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA).

Tim Burns's archive is, at present, a desultory one of immense physical scale. Its bulk is dispersed in sea containers between his Western Australian residences in Fremantle and York and in libraries or collection stores at places including: the Australian National Art Archives; the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA); the Art Gallery of New South Wales Archive; Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE) and Flinders University in South Australia; the Anthology Film Archives in New York City; and who knows where else.

Burns's distributed archive reflects his transit through cities, countries and mediums. It is largely unofficial, unregulated and contradictory. It includes, among other things: 120,000 feet of film reels; legal transcripts and arrest records from Tim's fourteen-plus court appearances; at least 400 film slides, mostly shot in New York; screenplays, stage notes, and scripts; a manuscript of his unreleased book, I Was Framed; a (very cool) Against The GrainT-Shirt that Burns doesn't remember making or seeing; countless exhibition catalogues from peers and friends; xeroxes, posters, collages, copies and copies of copies; reviews from the heyday of art criticism in mainstream mastheads; fan mail; hate mail; and much more.

Read more here.