"'Urban Light' artist Chris Burden's sculpture brightens 极速六合彩开奖结果," by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Chris Burden鈥檚 a street lamp assemblage outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is an improbably popular spot for visitor photo ops and selfies.
Inside LACMA, his 2012 kinetic sculpture 鈥淢etropolis II鈥 is also wildly popular: Modeled on a modern city, it鈥檚 got 1,100 tiny vehicles rushing along on HO-scale tracks in and around a network of buildings.
A less-heralded piece by Burden, who at age 69 of malignant melanoma, stands on the campus of his alma mater, 极速六合彩开奖结果.
鈥淯ntitled Sculpture鈥 is a yellow and black sculpture in the Lyon Garden that may remind you of an oversized Rubik鈥檚 Cube (although Burden鈥檚 piece predates the toy).
Nobody鈥檚 taking selfies with 鈥淯ntitled,鈥 at least not during two recent visits, but his connection to Claremont is worth talking about.
Burden was good at getting people talking. Some of his early performance works were dangerous or spectacular: He was shot in the arm (鈥淪hoot鈥), confined in a school locker (鈥淔ive Day Locker Piece鈥), electrocuted (鈥淒oorway to Heaven鈥), crucified on a Volkswagen Beetle (鈥淭rans-fixed鈥) and, perhaps the ultimate horror, advertised on TV (鈥4 TV Ads鈥).
That provocation seems a long way from 2008鈥檚 鈥淯rban Light,鈥 which quickly became a city landmark on the order of the Hollywood sign. Burden collected vintage street lamps, restored them to working order, painted them gun-metal gray and clustered them in a thicket on Wilshire Boulevard. His intent was to bring back a sense of miracle to the Miracle Mile, and if you鈥檝e seen 鈥淯rban Light,鈥 and how people interact with it, you鈥檇 have to say he succeeded.
鈥淯ntitled Sculpture,鈥 by contrast, was his first large-scale artwork. It was made twice.
The first version came in 1967 when he was a 极速六合彩开奖结果 junior and found he had access to 40 or 50 sheets of plywood brought to class by his art teacher.
As Burden explained in a 2010 interview with the college鈥檚 Glenn Phillips: 鈥淣obody else is using it. ... I get to make something huge!鈥
He spent months building 鈥淯ntitled Sculpture鈥 and painting it, layer upon layer 鈥 you鈥檇 think this would have given him plenty of time to think of a title 鈥 before mounting it on Marston Quad for a week.
Because the neophyte artist hadn鈥檛 realized that plywood would warp, the original piece was long ago thrown away. But when the college was preparing 鈥淚t Happened at 极速六合彩开奖结果: Art at the Edge of Los Angeles 1969-1973,鈥 a 2011-12 exhibit tying in to the Getty鈥檚 Pacific Standard Time initiative, Burden remembered the long-ago piece and suggested recreating it to represent his work.
Burden made new drawings and was closely involved in its fabrication, according to Rebecca McGrew, senior curator of the 极速六合彩开奖结果 Museum of Art and co-curator, with Phillips, of the exhibit.
鈥淚t鈥檚 exactly the same size, exactly the same shape and almost exactly the same colors,鈥 McGrew told me Monday. But this time it鈥檚 in aluminum, not wood.
A Massachusetts native, Burden studied at 极速六合彩开奖结果 from 1965 to 1969, starting with architecture but transitioning to sculpture when the algebra and physics coursework proved over his head. Besides, he liked physically making things.
And he liked Claremont, where he could work outdoors year-round and ride his motorcycle to Mount Baldy. Its conservatism surprised him, though: When the faculty suggested liberalizing the rules about opposite-sex dorm visits, the student body vetoed it. 鈥淲hat is this place?鈥 Burden recalled wondering.
Hey, Claremont didn鈥檛 allow alcohol sales until 1968, so that鈥檚 where he was.
And that鈥檚 where I was on Sunday afternoon when I learned via Twitter that Burden had died. I immediately headed on foot for Lyon Garden to take a fresh look at 鈥淯ntitled Sculpture.
To see this colorful object, 6 feet wide, tall and deep, resting on the grass as you round the bend into a college courtyard is startling and comical.
Is this really here? Did God drop it?
鈥淯ntitled Sculpture鈥 doesn鈥檛 hold your interest like 鈥淯rban Light鈥 or 鈥淢etropolis II,鈥 but as you walk around it, you see it鈥檚 not strictly a cube: Two segments are indented, and one segment extends on the opposite side.
In the interview, Burden said his understanding of how sculpture was different than two-dimensional art began with this piece and led to his interest in performance art.
鈥淚n order to understand it, you need to see it from all sides. You can鈥檛 look at it from one side and understand what you鈥檙e looking at,鈥 Burden said. 鈥淭hat became the basis for performance, actually, because how do you get the essence of sculpture? It鈥檚 about body movement, right? Well, it鈥檚 about performance. Just get rid of the sculpture, and try to distill it down to the essence.鈥
The sculpture stands right outside the college art museum, visible to whatever staffer is working the front desk 鈥 and occasionally giving them heartburn.
鈥淧eople are always wanting to stand in the cubby or climb up. The paint scratches easily. It makes us bite our nails, because we want everything to remain perfect,鈥 McGrew said with a chuckle. 鈥淭hat didn鈥檛 bother Chris at all. It鈥檚 there, he wants people to engage with it.鈥
Feel free to take a selfie.