CHRIS BURDEN : A TALE OF TWO CITIES HD

Film by Eric Minh Swenson. While still a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine, in the early 1970s, Chris Burden almost literally burst onto the international art scene with a series of grueling and, occasionally, gruesome performance works. Shot at, compressed, cut, burned, and crucified, his body became a living canvas for his artistic experiments. These outrageous acts made him an instant legend in the art world and a center of controversy in the debate over what constitutes a work of art. In the mid 1970s, Burden abruptly ended his performance pieces. Feeling that they were consistently misunderstood by critics and had become a source of perverse entertainment for the public, he refused, as he described it, to be a “hired gun to come in and commit some insanity.” Since that time, he has turned toward object-making and has created prints, collages, sculptures, videos, and large-scale installations. These challenge social and economic infrastructures, the military, the nation-state, and the very art institutions that display them. A Tale of Two Cities, first executed in 1981, was purchased by the Orange County Museum of Art in 1987 and was first displayed here in 1988 as part of the museum’s major retrospective of Burden’s art. The work has its source in the artist’s fascination with collecting war toys, bullets, model buildings, and antique soldiers. Initially conceived as an ongoing battle that would evolve over the life of the display, the installation is Burden’s fantasy about the twenty-fifth century, a time when he imagines the world will have returned to a system of feudal states. The miniature reconstruction of two such city-states, poised for war, incorporates 5,000 war toys from the United States, Japan, and Europe. The whole tableau is set on a sand base that serves as a metaphor for both earth and ocean. On this terrain, rows of actual bullets form walls that define the boundaries of each city and also separate them. Common houseplants represent the surrounding jungle. A Tale of Two Cities is overwhelming in its complexity. The viewer is able to comprehend its details only by looking through the binoculars provided by the artist. As we focus our gaze through their lenses, at once we become part of Burden’s installation—but in what role? As a general of an army, surveying the war games we have strategized? Or, as a passive voyeur, watching helplessly as warring city-states destroy each other? Is A Tale of Two Cities merely an elaborate children’s game? Or is it a sophisticated comment on the absurdity of war? Should we be shocked, outraged, or amused? As we move from the era of the Cold War to a time dominated by ongoing battles between neighboring nations, A Tale of Two Cities becomes uncannily prophetic. For more info on Eric Minh Swenson or project inquiries visit his website: www.thuvanarts.com. You can also visit the art film series page at www.thuvanarts.com/take1