session 6.

Summary, the tower of power.

This time I’m talking about this new:
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/04/new-museum-york-security-gold-display

In a few words, this new it’s about the controversial retrospective work of Chris Burden held by The New Museum, in New York.

Chris Burden is well known because of his polemic works of art. He started getting famous in the seventy’s with his performances, He did things like crucified himself on a Volkswagen, but the most emblematic work is “Shoot”, where he got shot by an assistant from a distance of five meters. When the press asks him the meaning of that action, he answered: “getting shot is as American as apple pie”.

The current work installed in The New museum it’s less aggressive, but still preserves the critic against the consumer society, although this critic is made by exposing and showing the problem with beauty and irony, in his works we can see how much the human being today admires money and technology, but at the same time spending a lot of money to make this different installations, therefore he makes fun of the spectator ‘cause he is admiring money just like the work of art is showing.

This is the case of “The Tower of Power” the most protected work of this series in the museum. It consist in a pyramid of 100 kilograms of gold, with little figures around it made of needles that worship this pyramid, because of the gold, visitors are only allowed to see it one at a time and must deposit their coats and bags in a locker beforehand.