Chris Burden

American, 1946-2015. Chris Burden was a conceptual and performance artist based in Los Angeles. Starting with performance art in the 1970s, Burden often endured physical pain to express his opinion on the current sociopolitical environment. One of his most infamous performances was when he was shot in the arm with a .22 caliber rifle as a comentary on the Vietnam war. Inspired by his studies of engineering and the work of Marcel Duchamp, Burden began creating interactive installations in the 1980s like The Big Wheel or Samson which was activated when the viewer passed through a turnstyle. Another famous installion still on view is Urban Light outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art which consists of 200 antique lampposts.