Voting Station

Chris Burden

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Performance Artist

The Resume

    (April 11, 1946-May 10, 2015)
    Born in Boston, Massachusetts
    Performance pieces include ''Five Day Locker Piece' (1971), 'Shoot,' (1971) 'Deadman' (1972), 'BC Mexico' (1973), 'Fire Roll' (1973), 'Doomed' (1975) and 'Honest Labor' (1979)

Why he might be annoying:

    He became famous for incorporating personal danger into his art.
    He received his MFA for a performance in which he was confined in a two-foot by two-foot locker for five days.
    For later works, he has crawled shirtless on broken glass, had a friend shoot him in the arm, and has been crucified on top of a Volkswagen.
    For a piece dubbed 'TV Hijack,' he held an unsuspecting interviewer at knifepoint for several minutes (1972).
    Ironically, given the notoriety he achieved with 'Shoot,' he resigned from the faculty of UCLA to protest their failure to immediately suspend a student who played Russian roulette in class with a fake, but real-looking, gun (2005).
    He said, 'I'm sure the student was referencing the work I did. He was also trying to co-opt and demean and parody it.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    For 'Shoot,' he originally wanted the bullet to graze his rib cage, but his wife talked him out of it.
    He said people should not try to emulate his more dangerous performances.
    He gave up self-endangerment for art after lying motionless for 45 hours for 'Doomed.'
    He argues that his resignation from UCLA is not hypocritical since there is a difference between doing a stunt at a gallery as a scheduled performance and doing it without warning in the middle of a class.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 30 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 15 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 12 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 62 Votes: 66.13% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 31 Votes: 67.74% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 44 Votes: 77.27% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 29 Votes: 65.52% Annoying