Chris Burden
-at twelve, had motorcycle accident and had surgery on left foot without anesthesia, formative nexperience
BA in visual arts, physics and architecture from Pomona College
MFA University of California, Irvine
1978 became Professor at University of California, LA
-resigned in 2005 over mishandled controversy over students work who echoed his own (involving a loaded gun)
performance artist through seventies, moved into installation art
currently lives and works in LA
basic concepts:
personal danger as artistic expression : Most of his work was during and after the vietnam war, so it seems to me that a great deal of his work has to do with bringing violence to the forefront, and asking people to recognize that violence is not exclusive - it can happen to anyone. There is a clear exploration of basic human fears (outside of the context of the vietnam war) that are usually left unspoken, and presented in a way that shows the artist actually experiencing these fears. (being shot, crucified, starving to death, socially ostracized, etc.) The fears become more knowable and less mysterious, less cryptic. Exploration of psychology and social occurrences.
And there is an obvious attempt to make the viewer uncomfortable, physically and mentally, perhaps to trigger new trains of thought?... "alternative" artist
I think this article is an interesting interpretation of Burdens work and intent. Its not too long! Read it!
brief timeline of some performance pieces:
1971: Five Day Locker Piece : Burden's MFA exhibition, five days in a locker with five gallons of water above him and a five gallon bucket below him. no other interaction with outside world, only limited number invited, no documentation
-Shoot : Burden had an assistant shoot him in the arm with copper jacket 22 long-rifle from a distance of 5 meters.
1972: Deadman :Burden covered himself with a tarp and lay in the middle of the road, with two flares on other side of him that would eventually burn out and increase the risk of being run over
-TV Hijack :When interviewed by television host, unplanned and unexpectedly held interviewer at knife point.
1973: B.C., Mexico : Experience of "starving to death."
-Fire Roll : “I began the evening watching television, smoking and drinking beer. The other artists were preparing their pieces. People were filling the museum and my activity went almost unnoticed. After about an hour I got up and went around the room turning off all the lights. I had a pair of old pants which had been passed around by many of my friends. I placed the pants on the floor and saturated them in lighter fluid. I lit the pants on fire and extinguished the flames with my body. I turned on the lights and returned to watching television.” -Burden
-747: “At about 8 am on a beach near the Los Angeles International Airport, I fired several shots with a pistol at a Boeing 747.” -Burden
1974: Trans-fixed : Burden had an assistant nail him to a Volkswagon by means of nails through his hands.
-White Light/White Heat : "For my one-man show at Ronald Feldman, I requested that a large triangular platform be constructed in the southeast corner of the gallery. The platform was ten feet above the floor and two feet below the ceiling; the outer edge measured eighteen feet across. The size and height of the platform were determined by the requirement that I be able to lie flat without being visible from any point in the gallery. For twenty-two days, the duration of the show, I lay on the platform. During the entire piece, I did not eat, talk, or come down. I did not see anyone, and no one saw me." -Burden
1975: Doomed : "Burden’s most trenchantly significant work was “Doomed,” performed in April, 1975, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He set a clock on a wall at midnight, and lay down on the floor under a leaning sheet of glass. Viewers came and went. Burden didn’t move. Inevitably, he soiled his pants. (“It was awful,” he recalled.) Forty-five hours and ten minutes passed. Then a young museum employee named Dennis O’Shea took it upon himself to place a container of water within Burden’s reach. The artist got up, smashed the clock with a hammer, and left." -The New Yorker
1979: Honest Labor : Burden spent three days digging a ditch alone while acting as a visiting artist
2005: Ghost Ship (combination installation/performance)
-"his crewless, self-navigating yacht.... was funded with a significant grant from the UK arts council, being designed and constructed with the help of the Marine Engineering Department of the University of Southampton. It is said to be controlled via onboard computers and a GPS system, however in case of emergency the ship is 'shadowed' by an accompanying support boat." - wikipedia
video clips:
“Shoot” -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26R9KFdt5aY
“The Flying Steamroller” - 2nd through 18th October, 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9K69zHLIeY
Burden about some of his installations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfOlIueMjpE&feature=related
Some of his work you described I found very unnerving, especially his taking a tv host hostage, and when he had himself shot in the arm.
ReplyDelete-By Amanda DiMartini