"Mention the name Chris Burden and you are likely to be asked, “Is he still shooting himself? In the 1970s, when artists such as Burden, Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman broke free from societal restrictions, they attempted to shock the art world out of it’s commercial intransigence. In the tradition evoked by earlier Dadaists, they made the artist/spectator relationship crucial. But in pushing the boundaries of concept over form to the extreme, they outdid their predecessors." - Artscene
Burden’s first performance, Five-Day Locker (1971), was simple: he spent five days crammed into a two-foot by two-foot locker. The locker directly above contained a five-gallon supply of water and the locker below was an empty five-gallon container. For five days he remained in that confined space with no food, probably in a most uncomfortable situation.
For perhaps his best-known performance Shoot (1972), the artist had a close friend of his shoot him in the arm with a .22 rifle.
Other performances include Prelude to 220, or 110 (1971), where he bolted himself to the floor of a studio with copper bands. Close by on the floor were live electrical wires of 220 volts next to buckets filled with water. Should the audience choose they had but to dump the buckets over and electrocute Burden. A recorded voice taunted the audience.
Bed Piece (1972), in which he stayed in bed in a gallery for twenty-two days, cut off from all normal exercise, social activity, and food. The actual bed was on a triangular platform bulit into a corner of the gallery space 10 feet above the floor.
Transfixed (1974), in which he stretched his body along the roof of a Volkswagen Bug while a friend drove sterilized spikes through his hands anchoring him to the vehicle which was then pushed out into the street where traffic was obstructed briefly.
And the notorious Through the Night Softly (1973), which featured Burden, arms tied behind his naked torso, dragging himself over shards of broken glass. Amazingly, Burden actually turned this piece into a TV ad!
AND HERE IT IS:
"Put simply, his works are violence about violence. But more directly, his work forces viewers to question their passivity in response to violence. By confronting viewers with his life threatening and sensational performances Burden suggested that the public was becoming increasingly desensitized to violence. The exceedingly high-risk body works crafted by Chris Burden are a means of working through ideas, while attracting attention to the violence in our culture and the media, which seems to be in command of all it delivers.
While many performance artists of the 1970's created works that were deeply disturbing and often offensive, none pushed the boundaries of fear to the extent of Chris Burden. Although following a stranger through the streets or photographically documenting a terminal illness played on the insecurities and emotions of viewers as involuntary participants, Chris Burden upped the ante by putting himself directly in harms way to provoke extreme discomfort in observers." (info taken from Arted.Osu and Ubuweb)
To see film documetation of some of his early works from between 1971 and 1974 go here:
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