Chris Burden at his studio in Topanga, CA

[image via wirednewyork.com]

Chris Burden (born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1946) is an American artist. He studied for his B.A. in visual arts, physics and architecture at Pomona College and received his MFA at the University of California, Irvine from 1969 to 1971. Burden’s reputation as a performance artist started to grow in the early 1970s after he made a series of controversial performances in which the idea of personal danger as artistic expression was central. His most well-known act from that time is perhaps the performance piece Shoot that was made in F Space in Santa Ana, California in 1971, in which he was shot in his left arm by an assistant from a distance of about five meters.

Medusa’s Head, 1990.

Plywood, steel, cement, rock, model railroad trains and tracks

[image via nialldebuitlear.com]

Video of Burden’s Shoot and other performance art

Chris Burden, Trans Fixed- 1974 image via jalopnik.com

Chris Burden, Shoo- 1971

[image via www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk]

Burden was taken to a psychiatrist after this piece. Many interpretations have been made regarding this piece. Many saw it as a statement about both the war in Vietnam and the American right to bear arms. Other performances from the 1970s were Five Day Locker Piece (1971), Deadman (1972), B.C. Mexico (1973), Fire Roll (1973), TV Hijack (1972), Doomed (1975) and Honest Labor (1979).

[Bio via Wikipedia Entry]

Chris Burden, What My Dad Gave Me (rendering), 2008-

electro-polished stainless steel.  [image via www.artdaily.com]

More info about the artist coming soon.

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