Chris Burden’s Metropolis II

photo by Alissa Walker

Was hoping to write a review of Chris Burden‘s latest installation at LACMA, but I’m just too busy right now.

Burden (who was once called the ‘most dangerous artist’) has moved from performance art, to earth art, to installations, where each evolution of his oeuvre retains vital aspects of his previous genre. So Metropolis II is as much a performance piece, as it is a work of earth art too. It is also ‘infrastructural art’ in that urban transportation systems are the main subject of the piece.

Wonder if there are any VW Beatles whizzing around Metropolis II?

photo by Alissa Walker

Three ½ hp DC motors with motor controllers, 1100 custom manufactured die-cast cars, 13 HO-scale train sets with controllers and tracks, steel, aluminum, shielded copper wire, copper sheet, brass, various plastics, assorted woods and manufactured wood products, Legos, Lincoln Logs, Dado Cubes, glass, ceramic and natural stone tiles, acrylic and oil-base paints, rubber, sundry adhesives. 9 feet, 9 inches (H) x 28 feet, 3 inches (W) x 19 feet, 2 inches (D). Image: © Chris Burden. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by E. Koyama. Courtesy of the Nicolas Berggruen Charitable Foundation.

http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/metropolis-ii

Video directed by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman, filmed in 2011 at the Burden’s studio in Topanga, CA.

Metropolis 2

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photo by LACMA

more links on Metropolis II & Chris Burden:

http://www.lacma.org/video/directors-series-chris-burden

http://www.g4tv.com/videos/51024/metropolis-ii-sculpture-with-chris-burden/ – has a video interview with the artist in his studio.

http://lacma.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/chris-burdens-metropolis-ii-on-its-way-to-lacma/

laweekly.com

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664409/metropolis-ii-a-tiny-city-where-100000-toy-cars-circulate-every-hour

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/12/chris-burden-installation_n_1201400.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/04/entertainment/la-et-chris-burden-20120104

http://blog.makezine.com/2011/06/17/the-ultimate-hot-wheels-track-in-make-volume-26/

http://gizmodo.com/chris-burden/

http://www.galleristny.com/2012/01/chris-burden-really-doesnt-like-traffic-jams/

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/artworld/2007/05/14/070514craw_artworld_schjeldahl?

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/28002/chris-burden/

http://www.artnet.com/artists/chris-burden/

Other works by Burden

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