Chris Burden
Chris Burden is an American artist working in installation
and sculpture but he is best known for his performances. Burden is a useful
example as, although he might be recognised as violent, he is not immediately thought
of as “militant”. By way of example he
allows us to question what Militant Art is.
He is also a useful example of the aesthetic ancestry of Militant Art.
1970s Performances
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| Shoot (1971) |
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| Transfixed (1974) |
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| 747 (1973) |
During the early to mid 1970s Chris Burden made a series of
violent and controversial performances that helped to define the genre of
performance art. He is perhaps most
famous for his 1971 performance “Shoot” in which an assistant, from 5 metres,
shot him in the arm with a .22 rifle. In
“Transfixed” (1974) he was nailed to a Beetle car, as if crucified. The car was driven out of the garage, revved
for a couple of minutes and then taken back in.
For “Deadman” (1972) he lay, completely covered by a tarpaulin, on La
Cienega Boulevard in LA with two fifteen minute flares placed nearby to warn
cars (Burden was arrested and charged for this performance but acquitted when
the jury failed to reach a verdict). In
1973 the FBI questioned him after he fired several shots at a Boeing 747 as it took
off from Los Angeles International Airport (he was out of range at the time so
the FBI decided not to press charges).
"747. January 5, 1973. Los Angeles, California. At
about 8am at a beach near the Los Angeles International Airport, I fired
several shots with a pistol at a Boeing 747." Chris Burden (BLOCNOTES
editions, 1995).
Works such as these are violent, but what makes them
militant? How is shooting at an aeroplane not an act of militancy? Burden’s cold-blooded description (above)
leads us to believe that it was a purely formalist action, not politically
motivated. He later spoke of how the work was not about shooting a plane but
about impotence, about the bullet never reaching its target, but this too could
be read politically. Do actions need to
be politically motivated in order to be militant? Or do Burden’s artworks, in fact, bear a
message?
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| White Light/White Heat (1975) |
In “White Light/White Heat” (1975) Burden placed himself on
a triangular platform, at about ten feet above the floor and two feet below the
ceiling, in the corner of the Ronald Feldman Gallery…and there he remained for
22 days. During the entire performance
Burden did not eat, talk or come down.
He did not see anyone, and no one saw him. The performance built on “Bed Piece”, in
which Burden stayed in Bed for 22 days (but did eat and get up to go to the
toilet – when the gallery was closed) and “Five Day Locker Piece” (1971) in
which Burden locked himself in a college locker for 5 days.
Visitors to the “White Light/White Heat” exhibition spoke
about feeling his presence, although none saw him and few heard him. As the
viewer waits and listens their experience of the room and its sounds is
heightened. Who would have known if he had died?
This work can be seen as a critique on religion, with
Burden playing the role of the invisible God “up above”. One can also draw parallels with Saint Simeon Stylites, the Christian
who lived on a pillar for 37 years.
Mortification of the flesh; fasting; voluntary seclusion; trial by
ordeal, Burden presented the trappings of Sainthood. Although the title of the exhibition came
from a Velvet Underground song it
also carried religious significance and his previous exhibition was entitled
“The Church of Human Energy”.
Burden has a longer track record
of religious iconography in his work.
For “Jaizu” (1972) he was dressed in white and wore dark sunglasses
while he sat, motionless, in a director’s chair for two days while viewers
contemplated him while seated on cushions.
In 1974’s “Transfixed” he was literally crucified on a VW Beetle.
By presenting a vacuum, in “White
Light/White Heat” Burden was able to elicit thoughts from the audience. Such thoughts may indeed have turned to
religion, or they may have reflected on the IRA members who were on the seventh
week of their hunger strike at the time, and clearly prepared to die for their
cause. If a political motive is needed to be called “militant” then perhaps Burden’s motive is to get people
to think. By evoking religious iconography such as exclusion and fasting perhaps Burden asks us if we too should reconsider our consumerist lifestyles. If this is the case, then Burden does have a political message and the
fact that he is prepared to break the law
(Dead Man, 747, Cole to Newcastle); risk his personal safety (Shoot, Dead Man);
and that he displays a militaristic, fanatical approach to endurance (White
Light/White Heat, Locker Piece) means that at the very least his methods do indeed echo elements
similar to those of a militant.
Tracing Militant Art’s Aesthetic Ancestry
During his undergraduate course Burden made two giant,
outdoor, tunnels – essentially like poly-tunnels. His tutors, who were advocates of Minimalist
Art, were an influence on him at the time.
Burden’s tunnels failed on two counts.
Firstly, they were vandalised; this led Burden to live in them during
their exhibition, in order to protect them.
Secondly, wind cause one wall to cave in, which had the knock on effect
of drawing in the opposite wall – by way of vacuum; you couldn’t walk down the
tunnel as the walls collapsed in on you.
However, Burden noticed that if you ran down the tunnel you made an air
pocket: the tunnel opened up in front of you and closed behind. This led Burden to consider interactive art
involving the “viewer” who would henceforth become the “participant”.
Burden’s performances have a direct link to sculpture
through minimalism and, I am claiming, Militant Art has an artistic heritage
leading back to sculpture through performance art. Militant Art groups such as Black Mask and
King Mob have cited Dada, Futurism, Surrealism as influences so Militant Art
should therefore be seen as expression drawing on these artistic histories.
