Review of Bill Burke's show Destrukto in the Boston Globe by Cate McQuaid

Substance behind the Ethereal

        Freed by destruction Photographer Bill Burke has as much fun as a boy with a BB gun in “Destrukto,’’ his show at Howard Yezerski Gallery. He also makes wonderfully witty nods to art history. Burke’s freeze-frame photos, culled from videos he made while shooting bullets at beer cans, soup cans, cameras, and more, recall the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge and Harold “Doc’’ Edgerton’s milk drop exploding on impact. The soup cans, all Campbell’s, nod to Andy Warhol. “Bud Nebula,’’ in which the foam from a pierced beer can splatters in a terrific spiral over the dome of a Weber grill, echoes Jackson Pollock. The gorgeous “Chicken Noodle Soup Triptych,’’ in which a soup can takes flight and a mess of noodles bursts out, marries Pop art with action painting.
      The show’s signature image, “Camera Prism in Front of Grid,’’ depicts a camera, white glass exploding from the top and the lens, with the word “Destrukto’’ scrawled joyfully beneath it. There’s something gleeful, almost sexual, about all these explosions — they convey an electric line between life and death. The camera can be read as a self-portrait; its destruction might be a tearing down of a personal and cultural icon. If you are not a photographer, it might be easier to relate to “Monitor Triptych Against Grid,’’ in which a boxy old computer monitor takes the bullet. I love my computer, but I took visceral pleasure in seeing this one explode. It felt liberating.