CHRIS BURDEN, EXTREME MEASURES.
THE NEW MUSEUM. NEW YORK.
This past Thursday I went to see Chris Burden's Extreme Measures at the New Museum, in the Lower East Side in New York. The exhibition was the artist's first major exhibition in the United States in over 25 years, as well as his first New York survey/retrospective of his work. Chris Burden, born in 1946, is an American artist primarily working in performance, sculpture, and installations. His background ranges from engineering and mechanics, to architecture and even physics. He received his BA in visual arts, physics, and architecture at Pomona College in California. He later received his MFA at the University of California, Irvine, studying under Robert Irwin.
His earlier work began in performance art, which as an artist during the early 1970s, consisted entirely of controversial subject matter, in which personal danger and personal harm was a central idea. Burden has produced and performed many pieces, in which his most famous piece known is Shoot. He was shot in the left arm by an assistant/colleague from a distance of about 15 ft, with a 0.22 rifle.
He later went on to teach at University of California, Los Angeles in 1978. Burden taught as UCLA for nearly 30 years until his resignation in 2005, due to a school controversy regarding the university's mishandling of an incident. The incident involved a student of Burden's who essentially copied Burden's Shoot performance piece, by incorporating a loaded gun in his own performance.
Burden's exhibition Extreme Measures opened at the New Museum in New York on October 2nd. Designed to be seen and experienced starting from the top (7th) floor, descending down to the ground/basement floor, I made my way to the sky room/deck in the museum, which overlooked the Lower East Side, and the rest of Manhattan. The selected works presented in the exhibition focused on weights and measures, boundaries and constraints, where physical and moral limits are called into question (newmuseum.org). I proceeded down to the following/6th floor to begin viewing Chris Burden's work. Immediately upon stepping out of the elevator, were four sets of single desks and chairs placed in the center of the room, with four binders placed on each desk labeled, CHRIS BURDEN: SELECTED WORKS 1971 - 1973. The binder evidently held a collection of selected works by Burden, performed between the years 1971 and 1973. The first piece introducing the selected works was Burden's performance titled Five Day Locker Piece, which took place between April 26 - 30 in 1971, at University of California, Irvine. The documented works were all showcased in black and white in laminated protective covers. This performance was one in which Burden locked himself in a locker for 5 days. The locker was a small school locker, measuring 2 ft x 2 ft. The locker above the locker that Burden spent 5 days in, contained a 5 gallon water supply, while the locker below him contained an empty 5 gallon jug. He was contained in the tiny locker without food for 5 days. The next piece documented in the binder was his most famous piece Shoot. It was performed at F Space on August 21, 1971, in which his assistant and colleague shot him in the left arm with a loaded gun. There were several photos documenting the act itself, as well as the aftermath, showing Burden's bleeding arm. The next piece documented was Prelude to 220 or 110, performed at F Space as well, on September 10 - 12, 1971. He was bolted to the concrete floor of the gallery by his wrists, neck, and legs for 3 days. There were 2 buckets of water with 110 volt lines submerged in them, laying near Burden. Had anyone chosen to spill any of the water, Burden would have been electrocuted directly. Other pieces documented were Disappearing, performed from December 22nd through the 24th in 1971, in which Burden basically disappeared for 3 days. No one had any knowledge of his whereabouts, as he hadn't given anyone any information. Jaizu, performed on June 10th and 11th in 1972 at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, in which he sat in a room next to a box of pre rolled joints and a few cushions, while wearing dark sunglasses as he faced each individual visitor. One visitor was allowed in the room at the time, in which he did not move or speak. Reportedly many people tried to talk to him, one assaulted him, and one left sobbing hysterically. The binder of selected works concluded with his piece Through The Night Softly, which took place on September 12, 1973 on Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The piece consisted of Burden naked, having his hands tied together behind his back, crawled and dragged himself over shards of broken glass on the concrete floor in Downtown LA. The 2nd and 3rd floors of the New Museum contained Burden's large-scale intricate sculptures, in which they, "…take[s] child's play and war games to an extraordinary level of complexity, poetry, and absurdity," as well as that, "Burden developed a keen awareness of the destructive and ego-driven tendencies latent in engineering pursuits."
Chris Burden: Extreme Measures is on view at the New Museum in New York from October 2nd through January 12, 2014.
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