Five Day Locker Piece
Five Day Locker Piece was a 1971 performance by Chris Burden in which he entered a student locker for five days as part of his UC Irvine Master's thesis.
| Five Day Locker Piece | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Chris Burden |
| Year | 1971 |
| Medium | Performance, documentary photographs |
Description
For his UC Irvine Master of Fine Arts thesis, performance artist Chris Burden entered an art building student locker (2x2x3 feet) for five days, from April 26–30, 1971. He had some room to wiggle but not unbend. In the lockers above and below him, Burden put a five-gallon water container and an empty container for urine with hoses for each. He fasted for several days in advance and consulted with doctors, who warned of potential blood clots and paralysis.[1][2]
Outside the locker, students and teachers argued about the project's merits. The campus police considered ending the performance early for Burden's safety. Towards the end, Burden said, the dean's office heard about the performance and considered ending it in light of their responsibility but ultimately decided to let it finish.[1] Near the end, Burden himself began to fear his vulnerability and what a crazed person could do to him.[3]
Analysis and legacy
The performance began Burden's career as a "durational daredevil"[2] and led to polarized opinions about his masochistic oeuvre. It established several themes that would recur in his work: risk of death, endurance, and the audience's moral dilemma.[4] New York Magazine compared the performance to Eusebius of Vercelli's ordeal of confinement.[5]
The work had a confessional quality, as people came to see the performance and would speak in confidence when they could not see the artist.[2]
References
- Seiberling 1976, p. 49.
- Knight & Senie 2018, p. 90.
- Fallon 2014, p. 100.
- Seiberling 1976, p. 50.
- Seiberling 1976, p. 53.
Bibliography
- Fallon, Michael (2014). "Shoot (1971) – Chris Burden". Creating the Future: Art and Los Angeles in the 1970s. Counterpoint. pp. 98–106. ISBN 978-1-61902-404-5.
- Knight, Cher Krause; Senie, Harriet F. (2018). "Shoot and a Bad Boy Reputation". Museums and Public Art?. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 89–. ISBN 978-1-5275-1200-9.
- Seiberling, Dorothy (May 24, 1976). "The Art-Martyr". New York Magazine. pp. 48–.
Further reading
- Anderson, Patrick; Halberstam, Judith; Lowe, Lisa (October 25, 2010). So Much Wasted: Hunger, Performance, and the Morbidity of Resistance. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4828-3.
- Teti, Matthew (2018). "Occupying UCI: Chris Burden's Five Day Locker Piece as Institutional Critique". RACAR: Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review. 43 (1): 39–52. ISSN 0315-9906. JSTOR 26454007.