Chris Burden, Performance Art, and (serious tone now) HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED

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Two Tenured Professors Resign From UCLA

Sat Jan 22,12:35 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Two tenured art professors have resigned from the University of California, Los Angeles, because the school refused to suspend a graduate student who may have used a gun during a classroom performance art piece.

Chris Burden and Nancy Rubins, internationally known artists who taught at UCLA for more than two decades, filed their retirement papers Dec. 20.

"They feel this was sort of domestic terrorism. There should have been more outrage and a firmer response," said Sarah Watson, a director at a Beverly Hills gallery that represents the couple.

In the brief performance on Nov. 29, the student appeared to point a loaded handgun at his head and pull the trigger, a student and law enforcement officials told the Los Angeles Times.

The weapon didn't fire, but after the student left the room a noise that sounded like a gunshot was heard outside.

Police said no one was hurt and it wasn't known if the firearm was real. Prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence for charges, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The student was allowed to continue his studies after the dean's office decided that suspension wasn't warranted.

Burden, 58, oversaw a program that includes performance, installation and video art, while Rubins, 52, taught sculpture.

Burden did performance art in the 1970s and his best-known performance featured an assistant shooting him in the arm with a .22-caliber rifle. That work was different because the audience never felt in jeopardy, while the UCLA performance inspired "genuine fear," Watson said.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 23 January 2005 07:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, or perhaps they were just ready for retiring anyway?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 23 January 2005 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

The interesting thing about this story is that the news hasn't been giving the name of the student/artist who did this -- which makes sense, I suppose, because they hardly want copycat performances. But what doesn't make sense is that the student doesn't seem to be hustling around the fact that he did this. (Or perhaps he is and I haven't noticed -- I haven't been paying super close attention to this story.)

Anyway, surely there were articles about how dangerous and idiotic Burden was at the time (and that seems to be how he paints his stunt now).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 23 January 2005 07:49 (twenty-one years ago)

you don't give up tenure - they gotta pry it from your cold, dead hands.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 23 January 2005 07:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe wanted to move to Prague. I hear Prague is nice.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Sunday, 23 January 2005 07:57 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, if that's true, he is old.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 23 January 2005 08:00 (twenty-one years ago)

How does Burden's performance work then if none of the audience felt fear or jeopardy?

hmm...hasn't John Duncan done stuff like this?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 23 January 2005 11:24 (twenty-one years ago)

This, along with the Jerry Rubin stockbroker story, is one of the archetypical "pseudo-rebellious baby-boomer goes 'soft'" tales. This sort of thing (as well as the idiocy of the original piece) is why they were never truly revolutionaries in the first place.

― J (Jay), Sunday, 23 January 2005 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait a minute...what about the TV Hijack piece, where Burden threatened the life of a newscaster?

Didn't he also shoot a rifle at an airplane, or was that someone else?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 23 January 2005 14:46 (twenty-one years ago)

he shot at a 747 with a handgun as an act of "futility"

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Sunday, 23 January 2005 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.criticarte.com/Images/Images2004/ChrisBurden.747.jpg

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Sunday, 23 January 2005 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

True story:

Some years ago, at the Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts, one student began to build a casket. No one paid much attention to this. The students at the Academy have their own key cards, so they can enter the premises whenever inspiration strikes. One night, another student entered the workroom and found the first student lying in the casket covered in blood, with an arm missing. He had cut off his own arm and grilled it in a microwave, probably to make sure it couldn't be reattached by a doctor. The student who found him called the ambulance. He survived, and is nowadays a well-known modern sculptor, the winner of the 1999 Ars Fennica price. The microwave is still in use.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 23 January 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

here's Burden crucified to a vw bug:
http://www.nelepets.com/art/20c/90-99/1998chris%20burden-trans-fixed1974.gif

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Sunday, 23 January 2005 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys seem to be forgetting something: 9/11.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 23 January 2005 15:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe they wanted to go out with a bang.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Sunday, 23 January 2005 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

The microwave is still in use.

for real?

― come on sock it to me (kephm), Sunday, 23 January 2005 18:18 (twenty-one years ago)

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOE THE LION...sleeps tonight.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 January 2005 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Karlheinz Stockhausen will not be pleased at this news

― dave q (listerine), Sunday, 23 January 2005 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

You guys seem to be forgetting something: 9/11.

-- miccio

duh, the thread title is a joke on HOW EVERYTHING CHANGED, dude. Irony is dead.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 23 January 2005 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I wasn't aware of how "extreme" (for lack of a better term) his art was.. I only remember his audio piece "The Atomic Alphabet" which was released on some Folkways compilation, where it's just him hitting his desk with his fist for every letter of the alphabet screaming "A IS FOR ATOMIC, B IS FOR BOMB, C IS FOR ..." etc. climaxing somewhere near the end of the alphabet then exhausting himself by the letter Z.

― donut christ (donut), Sunday, 23 January 2005 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

R'OFFLE

― joe suzuki-san (deangulberry), Sunday, 23 January 2005 21:34 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread was better, PRE-9/11.

― joe suzuki-san (deangulberry), Sunday, 23 January 2005 21:36 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.stonelittletheatre.co.uk/photographs/production/alibaba/alibabad.jpg

― joe suzuki-san (deangulberry), Sunday, 23 January 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.artpool.hu/lehetetlen/real-kiall/nevek/kepek/burden_doorway.jpg

― eman (eman), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

T.V. Hijack
http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/daniels/kunst-als-sendung/assets/images/material/127/image.jpg

― eman (eman), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember a Burden radio piece in which he repeated for at least 30 minutes (may have been an hour) words to the effect of "Consider the act of sending me money. I'm not telling you to send it, just think of sending it, of putting $20 in an envelope and mailing it to Chris Burden, ..." etc. over and over with some variation but the same message. The station he did it on, KPFK, had many staffers and subscribers up in arms.

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 24 January 2005 00:53 (twenty-one years ago)

And then they sent him money.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 00:56 (twenty-one years ago)

On KPFK, when they ask for money, you send it. He also included his mailing address in his piece (my aside was eaten, gotta stop using angle brackets).

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 24 January 2005 06:53 (twenty-one years ago)

How did he not get a visit from the cops for TV Hijack?

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 24 January 2005 06:55 (twenty-one years ago)

This was pre-9/11, obviously. It was art then.

― mayahee, mayahoo, mayaha, mayahaha (deangulberry), Monday, 24 January 2005 07:16 (twenty-one years ago)

This resignation is just his latest performance right?

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 24 January 2005 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, his next performance is to "give favors to" Prez Bush.

― mayahee, mayahoo, mayaha, mayahaha (deangulberry), Monday, 24 January 2005 07:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The microwave is still in use.

for real?

Well, at least it was in use (in the student break room) until last year, when the Academy move to new premises. But if they kept it after all that it had gone through, I don't think they'd throw it away because of one measly moving.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Tuomas - what's the sculptor's name?

― eman (eman), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Markus Copper.

I think this is his most famous piece:

http://www.arsfennica.fi/1999/images/copwhale1b.jpg

It's called "Archangel of Seven Seas"; the picture doesn't do justice to it, the thing is huge and it makes weird noises.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:26 (twenty-one years ago)

okay, thanks. man, this guy is scary:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.07/eword.html?pg=8

The Helsinki Killer Ball
By Panu Raty

When Finnish sculptor Markus Copper was a child, he enjoyed playing videogames and watching movies like Blade Runner and Alien. Now, at 26, he's making his own monsters. Copper's most terrifying kinetic sculpture is Juggernaut, an enormous steel ball that weighs as much as two cars. It has a motor, motion sensors, a juicy battery, and the mind of a psycho killer. It hunts you. If you don't jump aside, you'll be trampled under it. And it won't stop until the battery is dead.

Copper says he's not concerned about injuring people. Accidents can happen, but folks know what they're about to face. Juggernaut is stored behind a steel fence in Helsinki, and anybody who wants to play with the killer ball must unleash it first. The message is obvious: this experience might just take your life.

Copper's next project? "Bombs. I want to make bombs."

― eman (eman), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:35 (twenty-one years ago)

he's got the Luke Skywalker glove on!
http://www.mantta.fi/kaupunki/kuvataidepalkinto/kuvataidepalkinto2003/MarkusCopper.jpg

― eman (eman), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:40 (twenty-one years ago)

so do you think Burden resigned because he thought the kid was a pussy?

"ha in my day we just got on with it and FIRED BULLETS INTO OUR ARMS, none of this pissing about mock-theatricality!!"

seriously though, the kid's performance sounds like shock tactics 101, surely no one actually thought he was going to shoot himself?

(also is this perhaps more post-columbine than post-9/11?)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Monday, 24 January 2005 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't find anything on Copper and his arm, the microwave, etc.. Maybe it's just an urban legend or a backstory for his persona?

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 24 January 2005 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i couldn't either, but i don't doubt Tuomas' story. art school student stunts to the exxxtreme

― eman (eman), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh shit, you're right! I totally forgot about Columbine!

― mayahee, mayahoo, mayaha, mayahaha (deangulberry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:46 (twenty-one years ago)

ten years pass...

RIP

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-chris-burden-dies-20150510-story.html

― circa1916, Monday, 11 May 2015 01:49 (eleven years ago)

RIP

really made you think

― the late great, Monday, 11 May 2015 04:17 (eleven years ago)

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