Yuma Burgess

London, United Kingdom
@YumaBurgess
yuma burgess

Tech Innovators

The visual artist merging primaeval symbolism with modern-day technology.
Yuma Burgess

London-based visual artist Yuma Burgess makes otherworldly objects that merge primaeval symbolism with modern-day technology. A close collaborator of photographer Aidan Zamiri, Burgess is behind the velvet cornucopia in Caroline Polachek’s music video for “Billions”, as well as FKA twigs’ for “Pamplemousse”. He’s also behind the highly coveted RELIC earrings in Paolina Russo’s latest collection. Inspired by ancient civilisations, cave paintings and rock art, Burgess uses mythology as a way of understanding our lived experience.

As one of the key artists harnessing the spirit of dinocore, this relationship between tech and spirituality is a way of inserting mysticism or “irrationality” into our overly-computational present. “Maybe it’s the desire to go back to the primordial soup, maybe it’s the feeling that one day we’re going to be the skeleton that’s discovered by a future race,” he told Dazed earlier this year. Laser-cut slabs made of spray paint, sand, and resin reference the fluid computers of the early 1900s, but resemble ancient Egyptian tablets circa 3150 BC, while cutesy flower boy sculptures are a nod to the stylisation of ancient Mayan sculptures. A special mention has to go to Burgess’ alt account Scarab Soup, where he shares all his research tidbits. 

Text Günseli Yalcinkaya