Scandal at the Gallery: Chris Burden's "Shoot"

All in the name of art.

In the early 70s, this piece of conceptual/performance art, aptly titled "Shoot," proved politically relevant. The performance addressed issues such as the war in Vietnam as well as the string of political assassinations in the 1960s without ever having to explicitly state these intentions.

The piece also referenced the sheer amount of gun violence that takes place in the United States. Burden's "Shoot" called into question the ideal that America so often prides itself on, the "right to bear arms," examining the reality that one living in America could be shot at any time. Perhaps more important, statistically speaking, the shooter is likely someone you know.

Burden often used his own body as the object of art in order to highlight the relationship between artist and audience and the physical reality of the art making process. Themes of capitalism, autonomy and military force all emerge in his work.

Very little documentation of "Shoot" exists today. In fact, other than a few grainy photos, the only proof that "Shoot" ever occurred is located in witnesses' memories and Burden's own curt testimonial: "At 7:45pm I was shot in the left arm by a friend. The bullet was copper jacket .22 long-rifle. My friend was standing about 15 feet away from me."

Burden's penchant for physically unpleasant performance pieces has hardly been limited to "Shoot." Over the decades he has dragged himself over broken shards of glass, locked himself in a two-foot by two-foot locker for five days (without food), and been nailed to an automobile. The sense of personal danger is central to Burden's artistic expression; the psychological experience of pain, danger and risk touches upon humanity's core: how far will we let another human being go, before we as audience members step in and put a stop to what amounts to lunacy disguised as art?

As if allowing himself to be shot in the arm wasn't enough self-inflicted pain, the reverberations of "Shoot" have returned to haunt Burden more three and a half decades later. In 2004, the artist resigned from his teaching position at UCLA after the University failed to expel a student who played Russian Roulette with a fake gun in class.