Burden

First of, I am not a professional Artist. I have a daughter who is and some relatives who are.

I am not at all crazy about the Jack Ass movie series but as I watched this I can see he is brilliant in his own way. It was like watching the people that make that type of movie explain themselves in a rational and logical way.

I thought his idea that the sculpture itself might not need to be the art but what it does to the folks around them or how it makes them feel can be the art. I would agree with that.

I made me think which is what I appreciated the most I guess. A must watch? Probably not unless you are into art possibly.

Burden After watching the documentary, I find that Chris burden was an innovator of art. He has double side of personality. A crazy part of him likes to challenge the concept of art. He was using his body as the most impactful tools. He viewed himself as an art piece more than a person. So, he could abandon the limitation of being a human in modern society. He challenged moral, psychical pain, social orders, fear, anger and shame. He was so aggressively trying to experiments and exposes those human weakness to everyone. I could feel so much unsecure and threating in his performance arts. In fact, those negative emotion influenced him and brought craziness to him. He took hard drugs and carrying and firing a UZI all the time and viewed those behavior as arts. People around him are afraid of him because of his instability. He did, he finally brutally defeated those art critics and redefined the concepts of arts. Those who are viewed him as a clown were finally silenced because how philosophical and emotional Chris Burden's arts could bring to them. In fact, the other side, He proved he has talents on traditional art forms too. In fact, Chris burden never get out of his control. From the beginning to the end, he was always thinking as a sculptor. His goal was not going to really hurt himself but creating a moment of thinking. All his harmful performance arts were well prepared. When he lost his craziness in his late age, He was starting creating those great installations. Actually his works are all connected.

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.

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.

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.