Burgin was born in Sheffield (1941) and studied at the Royal College of Art and at Yale University, New Haven, USA. He became Professor Emeritus of History of Consciousness at the University of Santa Cruz, California in 1988, and was then appointed Millard Professor of Fine Art, Goldsmiths College in 2001. Possessionwas originally produced to accompany an exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. It was reprinted in July 1976 and 500 copies were fly posted across Newcastle upon Tyne. It was designed to look like an advertisement; the artist’s intention was to encourage viewers ‘to start thinking for themselves, because they’re consumers all the time, they’re put into the position in society of being consumers. I want them to stop being consumers and to start to be producers, and so the idea is to get them to produce their own meanings, not simply to have meanings thrust upon them.’

i>My Yard, British Council 2009