''Shoot'' was a 1971 performance by

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance, sculpture and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot'' (1971), where he arranged ...

in which he arranged to have himself non-lethally shot. It is the artist's most infamous performance.

Description

On November 19, 1971, at the F-Space gallery in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...

, a friend raised a .22-caliber rifle at a distance of 15 feet from the artist

and shot his left shoulder. The performance was documented in an eight-second video on

16mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

and photographs. There was a small audience for the performance, including the videographer and photographer. The work was later presented through documentary photographs and text from Burden.

Analysis

Burden has said that the performance came from the common folklore and televisual motif of getting shot in America, whether real or faked, without knowing how it actually felt. The performance was then to feel what he only experienced visually. Additionally, themes from the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

were frequent on American television news during the time of the performance. Burden displayed a high degree of control in the work's presentation. In the artist's self-published documentation of the work, the relics of the performance and its text are terse and leave the reader to imply the performance's narrative. Burden himself referred to the photographs as symbols. Commentators have also noted the role of non-intervention on the part of the performance's attendees, that in a

bystander effect The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present. First proposed in 1964, much research, mostly in the lab, has f ...

, no one contested the potentially deadly action.

Legacy

''Shoot'' is Burden's most infamous work. With ''Shoot'' and his later work, Burden pioneered the use of deadly risk as artistic expression. It made him known as "the artist who shot himself", even though this is technically false. As a critic in

X-TRA ''X-TRA Contemporary Art Journal'' (''X-TRA'') is an independent visual arts journal that focuses on criticism and conversation about contemporary art. ''X-TRA'' was founded in Los Angeles in 1997 by artists Stephen Berens and Ellen Birrell and i ...

put it, ''Shoot'' primary medium is rumor. Artist

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

's 1976 song, "It's Not the Bullet that Kills You (It's the Hole)", is in reference to Burden's performance. The performance spawned multiple reproductions. In 1999, an Israeli artist painted Burden after ''Shoot'' based on an image in

Lucy Lippard Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. S ...

's 1973 ''Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object''. Tom LaDuke's 2004 ''Self-Inflicted Burden'' is a three-foot self-portrait sculpture modeled after Burden after ''Shoot''.

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

art student Joe Deutch simulated Russian roulette with what appeared to be a loaded weapon in a 2004 performance class. Burden spurred an ensuing media controversy comparatively larger than ''Shoot'' by resigning his teaching post at the university, blaming the university's inaction against a hostile work environment, and likening the work to

domestic terrorism Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims.Gary M. Jackson, ''Predicting Malicious Behavior: Tools and Techniques ...

. Burden later said that the offshoot work was meant to co-opt, demean, and parody his own. Burden's retirement in reaction to Deutch's performance assured that the work would be remembered in connection with ''Shoot''.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Documentation of Selected Works 1971–74
at

Electronic Arts Intermix Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is a nonprofit arts organization that is a resource for video and media art. An advocate of media art and artists since 1971, EAI's core program is the distribution and preservation of a collection of over 3,500 new ...