Chris Burden

Although Burden was more a performance artist than a visual artist, his escapades did engender objects that turned up in art galleries, so he's in this section.

Doorway to Heaven
November 15, 1973
"At 6 p.m. I stood in the doorway of my studio facing the Venice boardwalk. A few spectators watched as I pushed two live electric wires into my chest. The wires crossed and exploded, burning me but saving me from electrocution."

Transfixed (Venice CA)
April 23, 1974
This action took place in a Speedway Avenue garage. The artist lay on his back over the rear section of a Volkswagen Bug and stretched his arms up over the roof. An assistant drove nails through the palms of Burden's hands, into the car’s roof.
The garage door was opened and the car was pushed partway out of the garage. After running the engine at full speed for two minutes, the car was turned off and pushed back into the garage, and the door closed.
(Note from the Webslave: I can picture making a really unique cuckoo clock based on this scenario. I hope somebody does it.)
Paul Schimmel later wrote that many people swear they remember seeing this Bug being driven around the streets of Venice with Burden impaled on the back end of it. But that never happened.

Relic from "Trans-Fixed", 1974 is physically an art piece, consisting of the two nails mounted on something

Bed Piece
February 18-March 10 1972
As part of something called the Market Street Program, Burden moved a single bed into an art gallery. At noon on Feb. 18, he took off his clothes and got into bed. It’s not clear how long he stayed - surely it couldn’t have been nearly a month. At any rate, during this performance he spoke to no one, and started to prefer the bed to the world outside. It seems to have freaked people out pretty effectively.

Money Tree Installation
1978 - Venice boardwalk

Shoot
1971 (This may or may not have been in Venice)
People showed up at a gallery, having received invitations for a reception. The place was empty. Then Burden and two friends came in. One filmed while the other shot Burden in the arm. This was during the Vietnam war, which probably had a lot to do with the conceptualization and meaning of the piece.