Dennis Hollingsworth

News from home

Checking into Dan's Iconoduel, I read more of what Mat Gleason dropped in his blog a month or so ago, some such fuss stirred up in UCLA. This blurb, snipped from Iconoduel, snipped from art.blogging.la, snipped from ArtNews:

Last week a rumor shot through the California art world. Artists Chris Burden and Nancy Rubins (his wife) had resigned their positions as teachers in UCLA's art department after an art student loaded a gun and fired it during an art performance in class. Apparently, Burden wanted the student to be reprimanded, but the university administration demurred, leading to the resignations. Both the artists and the school are mum on the matter. Burden, of course, is known for a 1971 performance piece, Shoot, in which he had himself shot in the arm with a .22 rifle.

I've waited sixteen years to read these (Dan Iconoduel's) words in the artworld at large:

How bourgeois is the derivative radical?

Sixteen years ago, visiting artists were dropping off thick bricks of Derrida that no one understood, the author was dead and painting was still impossible. Then as the Berlin Wall came down, I had hoped that a general reassessment would ensue, a fire of reflection and "where are we now, where are we going?".

No dice.

Choirs aren't soul searchers as a rule.

(Oh, and be sure to read the comments at Art.blogging.LA. Good stuff there.)

A second thought:

If it was a simple act of loading a firearm and firing it in class, this is a trivial story... which would make the ensuing drama all the more pathetic.

If it was indeed a public act of suicide... we are dealing with issues of mental health and this person needs some attention and care. Immediately.