In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

C B 7 V VIDEO BY CHRIS BURDEN A decade after the birth of his body art/performance , looking back at Chris Burden permits an examination of his work from various angles, freed from some of the rhetoric and tension that surrounded it at the time. Equally important, his videotapes offer a way to evaluate the durability of concept-related performance as art works, and the success of documentation as a viable residue of this type of art. When the first records of body art/performance began to appear in national art magazines, e.g. Cindy Nemser's "Subject90 S.SJ . uuy -nL, a1, s mugAn.), at-,. .nav a..ha. - R1WoI September 1971, the work generated a blue collar work. Body art was seen as an peculiar excitement and repulsion, like offshoot of Happenings and Duchamp at reading about kinky sex in a bourgeois en- the time, but it could just as easily have vironment. The hazardous, often self- been understood as the acting out of socialmutilating feats-attaching dying fish to 'political violence, beginning with the Civil the body (Terry Fox), smashing finger Rights demonstrations of the early '60s and nails (Dennis Oppenheim), or hurling continuing into the early '70s with Vietoneself against the wall until the wall was nam War protests. Fuel was probably addbloody (Barry La Va)-seemed like the last ed by Rudolf Schwartzkogler's death from decadent waves of machismo that had ar- self-mutilation in 1969 that was widely tists like Carl Andre, Richard Serra, publicized at Documenta in 1971. Robert Morris, Michael Heizer, and Robert Smithson flexing their muscles and Ofthese artists, Chris Burden undoubtedly made the most lasting impression because of his notorious performance Shoot, in which he had himself shot with a rifle. His work continued the theme of personal danger longer than any of the other artists in this group, but by the late '70s, his fantasies took on gentler dimensions. Documentation of Selected Works 1971-1975, videotapes shown at Anthology Film Archives in the spring, recounts eleven performances of the early '70s. Burden's work exists not only in the often private, ritualistic acts, but in the public re-telling of them, what Germano Celant has called "The Record as The Work of Art." The process of explaining the work reveals Burden's love of story-telling; his press releases and writings seem like a version of the confessional literature in men's magazines. His performance persona as it evolves in this work-autobiography combines the matter-of-factness of a master plumber recounting his work-related problems and a showman of the order of Evel Knievel, engaged in artificial virility tests in which there is often a failure of his expectations . In contrast to Knievel, Burden's feats are small potatoes, distinguished only from extreme eccentricity by the appellation of Art. Like a compulsive gambler doomed to lose, Burden's "stories" about the performances emphasize the moment when the idea failed and reality intruded: it is this moment that often makes the story. In 220 (1971), the earliest performance on the tape, Burden and two friends elect to spend the night on ladders in a room full of water (lined with black plastic) that has been electrified. Their dangerous nocturnal adventure is a grown-up version of the childhood fear of monsters biting off your fingers if they dangle over the edge of the bed at night. The fantasy became more obvious as unforeseen technical difficulties developed. The wood began to absorb water, intensifying the participants' fear they might be killed while they stood on the ladders. 2' x 5' locker for five days), but Burden discovered he liked living in a controlled environment and did not want to leave. Icarus(1973) is one of his most visually eloquent performances. Denying the fatherson tension of the original myth, Burden focuses the pain and ambition exclusively MZ Icarus In Bed Piece (1972), Burden was asked to live in an art gallery while confined to a bed for twenty days. His preconceptions about the event (the fantasy) were altered by what he found out about himself from the actual experience. The piece was originally designed as an ordeal on the...

pdf

Share