Performance art

There was some very interesting performance art, but there were two pieces that were disturbing to me the most.

Shoot (1971) by Chris Burden

In many of his early 1970s performance pieces, Burden put himself in danger, thus placing the viewer in a difficult position, caught between a humanitarian instinct to intervene and the taboo against touching and interacting with art pieces. To perform Shoot, Burden stood in front of a wall while one friend shot him in the arm with a .22 long rifle, and another friend documented the event with a camera. It was performed in front of a small, private audience. One of Burden's most notorious and violent performances, it touches on the idea of martyrdom, and the notion that the artist may play a role in society as a kind of scapegoat. It might also speak to issues of gun control and, in the context of the period, the Vietnam War.

Trans-fixed by Chris Burden, 1974

Trans-fixed was Burden's most captivating, dichotomous work. For the action, Burden was crucified to the back of a Volkswagen Beetle, though his initial performance was summarily brief-it's said Burden performed the action, the car was wheeled out of a garage for two minutes, with the engine revved, for the infamous photograph to be snapped, and then the car pushed back in.