extreme measures. chris burden.
porsche with meteorite | 2013 > restored 1974 porsche 914 – 390 pound meteorite – steel structure installation at chris burden’s studio topanga california
Many of the pieces in artist Chris Burden’s show at the New Museum in New York called “Extreme Measures” involve balance. He likes to compare and contrast size and weight by linking things with wires and beams. So when a huge crane beside a skyscraper under construction on 57th Street in New York the other day malfunctioned, it seemed as if a Burden piece had escaped and grown large. The street was shut down due to the menace of a 30 ton concrete counterweight from a crane overhead. And 30 tons is actually a pretty small chunk of concrete.
A similar piece from Burden’s show contrasts a 350 pound meteorite with a 1964 Porsche 914 connected teeter totter style in mock measure. Here the contrast is raw material and pristine design, cosmic melt down and Teutonic metallurgy and precision. Burden was well known in the 1970s for performance pieces called Shoot, from 1971, in which he was shot through the arm with a rifle, and Trans-fixed, in which he was nailed to a Volkswagen Beetle, crucifixion style. [ details ]
30-feet-long ghost ship | 2005 > courtesy of the museum
36-foot-tall twin quasi legal skyscrapers | 2013 > courtesy of the museum
transfixed | 1974
