BURDEN REVIEWED
“Burden” is a complex documentary examining the life of Chris Burden. It also scares the holy hell out of me that I get so much of what Burden is laying down. Too often, people blow smoke up their back ends of artists. What they don’t realize is the quest for purpose in their practice. It’s not just an artistic fluke to take a demo reel to a public TV station and make them play it on a loop. The B-Car and other engineering devices were more than just monstrous creations. This is was aggressive art meant to force attention.
I appreciated getting art collectors such as John McEnroe to talk about the pieces they bought from the artist. It’s one thing to have an artist talking head telling you why their pieces are important. You need to have the actual customers of this material tell you what is so attractive. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so where does transgression exist? My first thought is to make a joke about the lady in the black & white video. But, that falls on the artist for not calling that segment “Thick Bush #1”. Great stuff.
FILM STATS
- Not Rated
- 1 hr and 28 mins
- Magnolia