Chris Burden's Shoot versus LAPD Uniforms

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On November 19th 1971, performance artist Chris Burden was shot. Standing still inside an empty spacious gallery space, enclosed in white walls, he stood still as his friend aimed a loaded rile at his left arm from a distance, roughly about ten to fifteen feet. A couple of people stood by and observed the scene. Moments after setting up, the trigger was pulled, simultaneously while a man stood close to document the event by taking a black and white picture, which came to be known as his art performance creation titled Shoot. In 1993, Chris Burden created another work of art named LAPD Uniforms, currently being displayed at the New Museum, in NYC, on the second floor. In the exhibit their are copies of LAPD uniforms, complete top to bottom, right down to the holstered guns and batons. Chris Burden made thirty of them the year after riots erupted following the discharge of officers videotaped while beating a rowdy motorist, Rodney King.

It is true that Burden inflicted pain on himself, but that does not mean that this pain brought him gratification. Nothing about the documentation of Shoot implies that Burden found any thrill in the act, or any form of satisfaction. Chris Burden had one of his friends shoot him in the arm, but that is all. After being rushed to the emergency room, he went no further than to state the facts of what had happened leaving for what happened that night open for the public to interpret. Despite any artworks he produced afterward, Burden has come to be known as “the artist who shot himself.” Burden’s Shoot may have involved him getting shot, but the title of “artist who shot himself” has far survived the laceration. Therefore, regardless of arranging the attempt, he was n...

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... To recapitulate, Chris Burden has created both of these works to stir up the public opinion regarding violence in America, or as well as the world. In both Shoot and LAPD Uniforms, have to do with violence, force and power. I believe that Burden’s work involving the uniforms stirs up more of a current topic in today’s society regarding racial profiling, due to the massive population boom of minorities. The LAPD Uniforms had much more of a profound impact on me, being a minority and all. Lots of police officers today, much like in the past, use racial profiling to further their investigations, for they believe that the past crimes created have some sort of correlation to a persons race. Furthermore, art is and will always be subjective, for the question of “what” is not as profound as to understanding how or why.

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