an article new york Chris Burden

BURDEN CHRIS

New Museum on View Through JAN,12

While the title of Chirs Burden’s retrospective,”Extreme Measures,”promises thrills and even danger,the exhibition begins in the classroomlike confines of the museum’s fifth floor. Between 1971 and 1977,Burden risked serious injury to himself and others in aseries of performances that came toepitomize radical art in Southern California. Casting aside the perennial hand wringing about how to preserve and institutionalize performance art,the New Museum curators arrived  at an elegant solution for presenting these works: a few short films documenting Burden’s action and a set of sturdy binders arranged on desks. Flipping through the latter (yes,binders full of Burden),visitors could see photographs paired with the artist’s own straightforward description of what he did: living inside a school locker fordays,crawling through broken glass,attempting to breathe water,shooting at a jumbo jet in flight,being shot himself.

Instead of bemoaning our distance from the original events,we should be grateful for this kind of mediation. Nobody in their right mind would want to be around Burden doing a”piece.” A project he enacted while a student at UC Irvine he sat on a raised platform in a gallery  and shouted at anyone  attempting to enter to “Get out! Get the fuck out! “ And this proved to be very sound advice, not only because his audience could be placed in real physical danger, as when he nearly lit a building on fire for Do You B elieve in Television? (1997), but because  the literal presence  of the artist may  be the least interesting part of burden’s practice.

Vocabulary:

1.Title = judul

2. Documenting = Mendokumentasikan

3. Instead = sebagai gantinya

4. Sturdy = kuat

5. A raised = mengangkat

6. Breathe = bernapas

7. Wringing = meremas-remas

8. Aside = ke samping

9. Arranged = tersusun

10. Crawing = merangkak

11. Attempting = mencoba

12. Himself = diri

13. Should = harus

14. Grateful = berterima kasih

15. Around = sekitar

16. Shooting = penembakan

17. Raised = di besarkan

18. Through = melalui

19. Solution = larutan

20.  Advice = nasihat