Artist
Performance, sculpture and installation artist based in Los Angeles, California
PROFILE
Chris Burden
Guest
FROM Chris Burden
Design and Architecture
A 'Quasi Legal Skyscraper' in Pasadena In Pasadena at One Colorado Court, you’ll find a “small skycraper” created by artist Chris Burden with architects Taalman Koch. It’s not actually that tall, at 35 feet high, but Small Skyscraper, subtitled “Quasi Legal Skyscraper,” feels like a tower because it’s so slender, at 10 by 10 feet wide, built of extruded aluminum, with four wooden floors. It was conceived ten years ago as a kind of folly: the largest structure allowable that you could build without needing a building permit: 35 feet tall and no larger than 400 square feet. The project was part of a series of collaborations with artists, initiated by Taalman Koch called Trespassing: Houses by Artists. Linda Taalman of Taalman Koch is the co-designer with Burden and talks about the point the project was hoping to make. The project was sponsored by the Armory Center for the Arts and it was previously shown at LACE gallery. The Small Skyscraper at One Colorado Court and an explainer of the project by Chris Burden, photos by Frances Anderton
Design and Architecture
Chris Burden's High-Speed Vision of LA's Future Urban Light, a grove of ornate, historic lampposts at the entrance to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art , has become a much-loved landmark, and a gentle evocation of the Southland’s past. Now the same artist, Chris Burden, has created a new interpretation of Los Angeles, that’s the opposite of a stroll down a Victorian street. Burden, known for his performance and installation work, has created a kinetic sculpture named Metropolis II , a room-size imaginary city, with multi-level freeways and rail lines looping around cheerful skyscrapers. It’s made of Plexiglas, glass and stone tile and children’s building materials: Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, and Haba wooden blocks. It's also a feat of engineering, involving years of experimentation by a team of artists and lead engineer Zack Cook. The result is a delight, an artwork that’s instantly accessible, and appeals to the kid in all of us. But it’s meant to do more that. Burden says the sculpture is meant to evoke an LA of the future, where self-driving cars zip along at 200 miles per hour and one could drive from Pasadena to Santa Monica in a handful of minutes. Thomas Crow, professor of modern art at New York University, comments on this clattering, whirring vision of the future, especially in comparison to the peaceful Urban Light. And LACMA's director Michael Govan speaks about why Burden's interpretation of the city was the perfect addition to LACMA's collection. But could Burden's vision really be a glimpse into LA's future? Frances asks Dan Neil, auto critic for the Wall Street Journal, for his take on whether or not Metropolis II could eventually be a reality. A video of the making of Metropolis II by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman The sculpture is so complex an operator must stand at the center while it's running to make sure nothing goes awry. Photo by Alissa Walker Chris Burden points out some structural features at one corner of the sculpture. Photo by Alissa Walker
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