Burden

This film leaves me wondering exactly how I feel about Chris Burden and his art. It's definitely split into what I would say three parts. The first is Chris' beginnings- how he experimented with art, how he challenged people's views of art, and how his work was viewed. This early version of Chris makes me wary, but I really enjoyed his experimentation with art. While parts made me uncomfortable or anxious, (such as him nearly setting himself on fire, getting shot, letting people decide if they would electrocute him or not, and even nailing himself to a car) I still enjoyed thinking about the concepts behind his work. A lot of his early work left me feeling anxious, but not entirely uncomfortable with what he was exploring. The film does a fantastic job at making Chris seem level headed and cautious with his potentially dangerous stunts. The narrative shows him as someone who was creative, innovative, and mostly just misunderstood by those who didn't like his art. However, once Chris became big, the film portrayed him as almost maniacal. I was especially uncomfortable while watching the film when his extremely dangerous performances were being discussed. Notably, the interview where he held a knife to the woman's neck and threatened to kill her. This left me almost overcome with anxiety. As an artist, Burden definitely took it way too far when he did that. I can understand putting himself through physical or emotional pain for his art, but I will not stand for him putting another person in harm's way. Even if he was acting the entire time, the amount of trauma from that experience that still follows that woman is evident. The film shows him as a crazy man, angry and on a lot of drugs. It captures what I can only assume his mindset was like. However, as it shifts towards the later years of his life, the film makes another turn, making Chris seem like a sensible, level-headed artist that just wants to bring joy with his art. It's a complete 180 from where he was before with his big truck and machine gun. I really, REALLY adore Burden's late work. His art serves the public, completely for free. His art encompasses what I feel like art should do- bring innovation, creativity, and joy all together and make something beautiful. He does this really well with Metropolis (the toy race car piece) and Urban Light (the lamp installation). Watching Metropolis made me smile, and it was something that was just really intriguing to watch happen. I had seen Urban Lights before in pictures, but I would have never thought that the same person who created that also crawled naked on broken glass or had someone shoot them in the arm. The film does an incredible job showing these stages of Burden's life, and how his attitudes towards creation changed throughout his life. Burden was innovative in his work, but his wide range of actions, both good and bad, makes me undecided about how I feel about him as an artist as a whole.

This documentary can be seen as a record or a story of Chris Burden, was an American artist, and his artworks. If you are an artist, Chris Burden is the name you should know. You can dislike his work, but you will get some inspirations after you saw his pieces. From his early works on performance and sculpture to later installations, the art styles changed significantly from time to time so do Burden as an artist. The early artworks of Burden are full of violence, fear, uncertainty, and even bloody. The video about performance piece named 'Shoot,' his the most known 1971 performance work, reflected the moment of art. As Burden said, every person, especially in the United States, would have fantasy of getting shot. He just was a performer presenting this fantasy to the audience. The boundary between art and incident is blurred in this art piece. After watching videos of his early performance art, I cannot stop thinking the definition of art in the art world. All those pieces are on the line between art and lunatic actions. His later installations and sculptures are pleased to see. I can define those works as art without hesitation. By using many small parts, Burden created a huge sculpture, an area, and even a world. His works are a journey of self-consciousness. Who am I? What do I want to do? What is art for me? How do I reflect on my works? One thing make feel a little boring is the background music. Though this documentary has a few background music, I am the kind of person expecting more background music while watching a documentary. Just a personal view.

Chris Burden, about whom I knew nothing before viewing this film, lived the life of a person examining the nature of art. (May he rest in peace.) Abstracting what ties his various early performances and later sculptures together, one may arrive at the conclusion that art is the imposition of one´s will upon the universe. It´s an interesting idea, and as far as I can tell, there is no other way really to distinguish his early works from stunts carried out by thrill seekers. Burden´s only reason for risking his life, allowing himself to be shot, nailed to a Volkswagen, lie inert for days as part of a performance, or occupy a 2 x 2 locker for five days, was to express his desire to do those things.

In some ways, Chris Burden reminds me of Christo, who also has done some pretty bizarre and seemingly pointless things, wrapping buildings and bridges, etc., and which some people may regard as equally insane. But there are two notable distinctions: Burden for the most part carried out his projects without having to prostrate himself before local municipal governments, and Burden did not, at least in his early work, seem to care at all about beauty and aesthetics, as Christo obviously does.

What a lucky artist Burden was, to have had such a surname, which makes the perfect title for this film, given the reaction to him by much of the art world and public, at least as depicted in the archival news footage and interviews.

Burden is directed by Richard Dewey and Timothy Marrinan and showcases the life of the artist Chris Burden and his career which ranges from performance, sculpting, and installation. The movie shows his many attempts to reach new boundaries in the art scene. This makes the viewer question if we should call his violent, life-endangering work art and how broad the definition for art is. The documentary is structured chronologically with Chris Burden's life from his experimental college days to his remarkable installations towards his final decade. It has cross-cutting between newly-documented interviews with first hand accounts and older footage of Chris in his youth. The viewpoints the filmmakers were able to obtain for this biography really makes you feel like you knew who he was and you will have trouble not becoming an instant fan. Chris Burden had opposers who didn't think his work should be classified as art but the act of a madman. Purposefully putting yourself at risk in order to convey a message didn't go well with mainstream art audiences in the seventies. Chris however does mention the similarities to notable artists when they were experimenting and attempting techniques never seen before. He argues that art should be about pushing the bar and making a unique impact in the culture. Towards the latter end of his life is where Chris proves his spot in a list of prominent artists. He stated how he admired sculptures in how they require action from the viewer to analyze work from all angles unlike a 2-dimensional painting. He takes this idea to the extreme when looking at his works which include Metropolis II and Medusa's Head. It is quite astonishing the detail and craftsmanship in both of these works and which also don't have a message requiring the gamble of someone's life.

Putting Burden's artwork and personal performances aside, I want to say that this was in fact a very well put together documentary! It had relatively smooth transitioning and for most of my viewing I felt very intrigued and perplexed on what could be shown next! Well done to the editor!

When speaking in terms of the content, I would say that you as an audience really get to know Burden and his tenacity as well as his personal inspirations. These become very apparent as something that is very extreme in terms of personal safety and the safety of the viewers but also something that envelopes the viewer by creating the sense of concern, anxiety, and perhaps making you feel a tad bit uncomfortable. At the end of the day Burden is a proven and acclaimed artist and this doc represented much of his path along the way from childhood to his very end.