Friday 30 September 2016
Thoughts on Chris Burdens Art,.
Burden's art does is not concerned with the creation of an object designed to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer, the art resides in the actual response of the viewer or even the non response of the viewer, if there can indeed there is any such thing as a non-response, for it can be argued that not to respond to a situation being experienced is a response.Burden in the act of causing injury to himself forces the viewer either to intervene or remain passive during the act of viewing , but we will assume in either case the viewer is mentaly or emotionally moved, either to a state of concern, horror ,helplessness or possibly even disgust.Burden art does not produce as already stated a physical object that can be traded as a commodity in the art market, like a painting or piece of sculpture. Burdens art is dealing with the creation of ideas, through actions which are born of a concept, or maybe a question he wishes us to ask ourselves. Burdens art as stated is not a commodity, but it does posse questions about the commodification of modern mass culture. If we see violence on a television screen similar to that which Burden enacts in a gallery space, but we fail to respond in a similar way. Burden's art posses the question ,has mass media and the commodification of contemporary culture anethetised our emotional response through a form of anethetised repetition.
Chris Burden , Artist, viewer, response no-response
Visit our Community Pages
ARTISTS CHRIS BURDEN
Chris Burden
American Sculptor and Performance Artist
Movements: Performance Art, Conceptual Art
Born: April 11, 1946 - Boston, Massachusetts
Died: May 10, 2015 - Topanga, California
QUOTES
1 of 4
"It's about trying to frame something. And draw attention to it and say, 'Here's the beauty in this. I'm going to put a frame around it, and I think this is beautiful.' That's what artists do. It's really a pointing activity."
LIKE THE ART STORY ON FACEBOOK
FOLLOW THE ART STORY ON GOOGLE+
"I had an intuitive sense that being shot is as American as apple pie. We see people being shot on TV, we read about it in the newspaper. Everybody has wondered what it's like. So I did it."
Synopsis
Chris Burden has produced some of the most shocking works in the history of twentieth century American art, including spending five days and nights in the fetal position inside a locker, having a spectator push pins into his body, being "crucified" to a Volkswagen Beetle, being kicked down two flights of stairs, and even having himself shot. The challenge for viewers is to try to understand such troubling and seemingly "inartistic" gestures. Such an understanding is made possible by seeing these works within the context of Conceptual artduring the 1970s, where artists concerned themselves with art based on ideas and action rather than objects created for an elite art market. Additionally, the violent images of the war in Vietnam and the television media in general provided a background setting for Burden. His work further challenges viewers to take stock of their own moral compasses and widen their understanding of the ways in which it is possible for art to serve humanity.
Key Ideas
Chris Burden's seemingly outrageous performances were in fact authentically intentioned. His art explores the nature of suffering by setting up extreme situations that he, himself, has to endure. Theoretically, a viewer can interrupt the work at any point, but usually they do not; thus, his work challenges viewers themselves to act - both within the sphere of his art and within the larger context of humanity in general.
The artist wanted to portray the reality of pain to the audience at a time when people had become desensitized to the plethora of television images of injured and dead American soldiers in Vietnam and the general dominance of violence in media imagery.
Burden also questioned the role of art itself. Can art be more than something precious, elite, and distant? To what extent can the artist be the work of art and how far can the artist go in leading viewers to think and respond?
Most Important Art
 | Shoot (1971) Shoot is the piece for which Burden is infamously known. He asked a friend to shoot him with a .22 rifle from a distance of 15 feet. The bullet was originally supposed to nick the side of Burden's arm, but the shooter was slightly off target and the bullet went through the arm instead. This piece presented exactly what happens when a person is shot so that the audience could experience it in person, and not just in a detached setting such as watching the television while sitting comfortably on the couch. The viewer can only recoil in shock at realizing that an actual person was just shot in front of them. In describing the piece, Burden stated that "it was really disgusting, and there was a smoking hole in my arm." This work also poses questions about the nature of power and following orders, a theme especially indicated by the imperative of the title Shoot, itself. To what extent are we required to follow orders? What are the boundaries between rules and responsibility to fellow human beings? Burden's work was also a way of re-sensitizing people to the violence that had become less and less shocking due to its prevalence in the news. Finally, in addition to challenging the art world's traditional preference for the "fine art" of painting, for example, what Burden really seemed to be challenging was himself and his own dedication to his art. One cannot argue that someone who so consistently put himself in physical and mortal danger for his work was not completely dedicated to his art: in fact, Burden said that one of the reasons he performed Shootwas so that he would be taken seriously as an artist. .22 rifle and bullet - N/A |
Biography
Childhood
Burden, the son of an engineer and a biologist, was born in Boston in 1946 and grew up in France and Italy. When he was 12, Burden was involved in a motorcycle accident in Italy that required his foot to be operated on without anesthesia. This traumatic event seemed to be the catalyst for his future works that focused on self-inflicted physical pain. Burden moved back to the states and finished high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Influences and Connections
Influences on artist
Artists, Friends, Movements
Influenced by artist
Artists, Friends, Movements
Interactive chart with Chris Burden's main influences, and the people and ideas that the artist influenced in turn.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Useful Resources on Chris Burden
ARTIST FEATURES
| Extreme Acts of Chris Burden Entry on Art Story Blog |
 |    |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)