Christopher Lee Burden was born in April 11, 1946, in Boston but ended up being raised in other countries: Cambridge, Mass, Italy and France. He was known for his work in field performance, sculpturing and installation of art. His vision was as a result of getting injured in a motorcycle crash which led him into studying visual art in photography. He pursued his Bachelors of Arts in visual arts, architecture as well as physics at the Pomona College. Later, he got his Master in Fine Arts in Irvine at the University of California.
Burden began to make performance art in early 1970s. Five Day Locker Piece was his first recognized piece made in 1971 as it was essential for his master’s thesis which he received at UC Irvine. On April 23 1974, “Trans-Fixed”, one of his most known performances was organized at the Speed Way Avenue, Venice (Blumberg, 2018). Lee created a B-car and a four-wheeled vehicle which was of a lightweight in 1975 and later turned to large-scale sculptural installation by the end of the 1970s. Some of his other works includes the DIECIMILA, a facsimile of an Italian 10000 Lira note which was created in 1977 and The Speed of Light Machine which was due in the 1983, the same year he constructed a scientific experiment in which he could be able to measure the velocity of light.
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He was a professor in the University of California, Los Angeles, from the year 1978 to 2005 where he resigned due to the allegations that he mishandled a student’s piece that was being performed in class. This, however, made one of his very own performance pieces to be known widely. In 1979, Chris showed his Big Wheel exhibition for the first time at Rosamond Felsen Gallery and later the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, exhibited it in 2009. Burden further released “The Atomic Alphabet” lithography which he performed in 1980 and twenty more editions of the similar art work were released and bought by several museums (Blumberg, 2018).
Later, Burden focused majorly on sculptures thus intricating installations consisting of several divided parts and including the cogs. He created “A Tale of Two Cities” in 1981 in which he was inspired by several factors including the fantasy about the 25 th century and the antique soldiers. In 1998 he worked on the “Hell Gate” model between two Island and the Urban Light. In 2008 he assembled 202 sculptures restoring Los Angeles street lamps. It marked the entrance to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where several people who saw it appreciated his work and referred to it as restored hope that was once lost (Blumberg, 2018).
Burden’s last project was called “The Ode to Santos Dumont”, a work dirigible that flies in perfect circles. This was motivated by the Brazilian pioneering aviator who was unveiled at the private Gagosian Gallery event. This project was just before his death. Burden’s project was later incorporated at LACMA in honor of him. His work was featured in most collections of museums, the Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A being one of them (Blumberg, 2018). He is also featured in Whitney Museum of American Art and the modern art museum, New York. Other areas where his work was featured includes the 21 st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, the Middelheimmuseum, the Museum of Contemporary art and many more.
Between the year 1967 to the year 1976, Burden was married to Barbara Burden. He was later married to Nancy Rubins who was a multimedia artist. She wrote down most of Burden’s early artworks and participated also in most of them. Burden died at the age of 69 in his Topanga Canyon, on May 10 2015 (Blumberg, 2018); approximately one and half years since he started suffering from melanoma.
References
Blumberg, N. (2018 ). Chris Burden: American Performance and Installation Artist and Sculptor. Britannica.
