Chris Burden, Three performances, 1971-73
Tag: chris burden
Chris Burden, Velvet Water, 1974
In this performance the artist repeatedly inhaled water and broadcast his self-torture to a remote audience.
Chris Burden, Untitled, 1974, photograph of the artist’s hands and lithograph of a note from one of Burden’s assistants, which reads, “Chris–Took bus to work. Can not do nails. Couldn’t sleep."
Chris Burden – Prelude to 220, or 110 (1971)
Burden lay bolted with copper bands to a concrete floor, near two buckets of water in which live 110-volt lines had been submerged. Had anyone visiting the gallery chosen to spill the water, Burden would have been electrocuted. Such performances created a context in which it was possible (though not probable) that the artist would die. Fear or pain, Burden said, “energize the situation,” and that energy was his subject.
(Source: C. Carr, «On Edge. Let’s Make an Ordeal—Young Artists Recover the Conceptual ‘70s in the Material ’90s,» 1998, http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/9849/carr.php)
Little Bristling Soul 