Short of the Week: The man who took a bullet for the sake of art
Great art often requires great sacrifices but do you really have to be shot by someone to qualify as an artist? For this edition of Short of the Week, we revisit the time when Chris Burden actually attempted to create an artistic performance piece by having his friend shoot him in the arm with a rifle. And it’s on video.
Conceptual art has always been about pushing the boundaries of art by exploring uncharted territory and embarking on adventures that no artist has taken before. Still, nobody would ever expect an art piece to be accompanied by this description: “At 7:45 p.m. I was shot in the left arm by a friend. The bullet was a copper jacket .22 long rifle. My friend was standing about fifteen feet from me.”
Burden became seriously involved with performance art in the 1970s, engaging in all kinds of endeavours, such as firing live ammunition at a Boeing 747 as well as being crucified onto a Volkswagen Beetle. However, his most famous piece will always be the 1971 film Shoot which featured him taking a real bullet. When asked about his motivation, Burden responded: “I wanted to be taken seriously as an artist.”
During a conversation with Roger Ebert, Burden explained: “It was supposed to be a graze wound, but my friend missed. We didn’t even have a first-aid kit on hand. In retrospect, the whole thing seems incredibly stupid. But at the time, you see, we simply couldn’t allow for the possibility that the piece wouldn’t work.”
While talking to Ebert about the project, Burden revealed that he had initially wanted to be shot near his rib cage, but his wife thought it was too dangerous. He added: “The idea was not to miss. At first, I wanted the graze wound to be across my rib cage, but my wife talked me out of that. There’s very little pain in getting shot. It’s more of a shock — like getting hit by a truck.”
A lot of Burden’s work deals with questions about human mortality and the fragility of the human body. However, Shoot is more than that, especially when seen in the larger sociopolitical context of American society at the time. It is a blunt and pointed commentary on America’s inextricable relationship with violence and the Vietnam War.
Watch Chris Burden take a real bullet below.
