Channel your inner three-year old.
May 24, 2012 6:17 PM Subscribe
A short wordless documentary on Chris Burden's (previously, previousylier) 2008 installation Beam Drop
Man, for a second I read that as BOB Burden and was delighted at the prospect of him doing surrealist installations.
posted by egypturnash at 6:53 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by egypturnash at 6:53 PM on May 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Man, I love Chris Burden's later work. Ever since he stopped trying to physically and mentally torture himself, basically.
posted by gwint at 7:06 PM on May 24, 2012
posted by gwint at 7:06 PM on May 24, 2012
Rods from God
posted by drdanger at 7:26 PM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by drdanger at 7:26 PM on May 24, 2012 [2 favorites]
Wow, does that look like fun! Creating Beam Drop, I mean, not...the other stuff. Not the non-fun stuff like the shooting and the nailing and the imprisonment. Just the fun stuff looks like fun. And oh, what fun! I want to go drop some I-beams on something RIGHT NOW
posted by the painkiller at 7:58 PM on May 24, 2012
posted by the painkiller at 7:58 PM on May 24, 2012
Sort of mesmerizing and peaceful in a cement and steel way.
posted by HuronBob at 8:01 PM on May 24, 2012
posted by HuronBob at 8:01 PM on May 24, 2012
Yeah there are several of these on Youtube, like the Antwerp piece. And unfortunately there are also a bunch of lame audio remixes. Hey go bang on your own metal bars.
Burden's does some great pieces about kinetic energy like "The Big Wheel." I saw them fire it up, back in the mid 80s at MOCA. That was a hell of a sight.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:02 PM on May 24, 2012
Burden's does some great pieces about kinetic energy like "The Big Wheel." I saw them fire it up, back in the mid 80s at MOCA. That was a hell of a sight.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:02 PM on May 24, 2012
^ She is way too nonchalant about being so close to that wheel. Did you see when she brought her foot over - she wasn't even looking at it. So he doesn't put himself in harms way any more, he just gets other people to go in harms way for him when the art requires?
/sourpuss
posted by victory_laser at 8:24 PM on May 24, 2012
/sourpuss
posted by victory_laser at 8:24 PM on May 24, 2012
I like Burden's works like Samson that threaten massive destruction. I went through that turnstile many times.
You get within 6 feet of that wheel and you know you are in the presence of incredible danger. I walked right up to it, you can feel the air rushing past and hear the bearings roll. I stuck the corner of my exhibit pamphlet against the wheel until it started to smoke. Anyway, the wheel rolls up towards her back so it could only kick her out and up, not suck her down into the machinery. The sides are the really dangerous bit, it could pull you in and smash you to bits, and if you stand there, you are very aware of this. The museum workers spin up the wheel a couple of times a day (it spins for hours unattended) and they do this over and over, and it must be a rush firing it up. The guy I saw running the bike looked like he was thoroughly enjoying it.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:17 PM on May 24, 2012
You get within 6 feet of that wheel and you know you are in the presence of incredible danger. I walked right up to it, you can feel the air rushing past and hear the bearings roll. I stuck the corner of my exhibit pamphlet against the wheel until it started to smoke. Anyway, the wheel rolls up towards her back so it could only kick her out and up, not suck her down into the machinery. The sides are the really dangerous bit, it could pull you in and smash you to bits, and if you stand there, you are very aware of this. The museum workers spin up the wheel a couple of times a day (it spins for hours unattended) and they do this over and over, and it must be a rush firing it up. The guy I saw running the bike looked like he was thoroughly enjoying it.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:17 PM on May 24, 2012
I love how it's all setup like a normal construction site, cranes, cement trucks, bulldozers, guys in hardhats. And they just start dropping beams into a big pool of cement like they're insane. It's like a bunch of construction workers got together, drew up plans for a building, and then dropped a ton of acid before they started. Or like some weird cargo cult where cavemen were given a bunch of construction equipment and then tried to build a building having never seen one in their lives. Or something.
posted by delmoi at 12:48 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by delmoi at 12:48 AM on May 25, 2012 [1 favorite]
I giggled like a little kid when that first beam dropped into the concrete. This a lovely, whimsical piece. You have to know that the engineers dropping the beams were having a fun time at it.
Man, I love Chris Burden's later work. Ever since he stopped trying to physically and mentally torture himself, basically.
This. His early work was certainly captivating and thought-provoking, but I, too, really like his later works.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:48 AM on May 25, 2012
Man, I love Chris Burden's later work. Ever since he stopped trying to physically and mentally torture himself, basically.
This. His early work was certainly captivating and thought-provoking, but I, too, really like his later works.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:48 AM on May 25, 2012
Man, I love Chris Burden's later work. Ever since he stopped trying to physically and mentally torture himself, basically.
This. His early work was certainly captivating and thought-provoking, but I, too, really like his later works.
For me they are like two different artists. I love each decade of his output. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE.
OK OK, giant hot wheels track FTW.
NO NO NO hiding in a locker for days!
NO YOU'RE WRONG, it's the giant industrial balls with trains that are the best!
NO! It's the movie of crawling over glass and then buying it time as an advertising slot on TV!
ACK DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE.
posted by Theta States at 7:17 AM on May 25, 2012
This. His early work was certainly captivating and thought-provoking, but I, too, really like his later works.
For me they are like two different artists. I love each decade of his output. DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE.
OK OK, giant hot wheels track FTW.
NO NO NO hiding in a locker for days!
NO YOU'RE WRONG, it's the giant industrial balls with trains that are the best!
NO! It's the movie of crawling over glass and then buying it time as an advertising slot on TV!
ACK DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE.
posted by Theta States at 7:17 AM on May 25, 2012
I LOVE this. Everything about this. I love the physical preparation necessary to execute it. I love the way it harnesses the laws of physics to make Big Art. I love the whiff of danger, the crane, the hardhats, the chains. All of it. I LOVE THIS.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:24 AM on May 25, 2012
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:24 AM on May 25, 2012
Art: something artists do on behalf of all of us.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:58 PM on May 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:58 PM on May 27, 2012 [2 favorites]
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The author is dead, I suppose, or in this case, could possibly be dead, but nevertheless!
posted by quoquo at 6:46 PM on May 24, 2012