From bullets to bridges: Chris Burden's new architecture-inspired works were recently on view at several venues in Los Angeles and New York

After a drawn out absence from the New York and observes Angeles gallery scenes, L.A.-based artist Chris load recently presented exhibitions of of recent origin work in both cities. The performance- and body-art pioneer, who is better known these days for large-scale statuarys and installations, showed a series of bridges made of polished stainless-steel or painted Erector place and Meccano pieces, like those in children's construction-kit toys popular in the early and mid-20th hundred Titled "Bridges and Bullets," the L.A. present to view at Gagosian, was Burden's first major exhibition in that city in five years.

Gold Bullet (2003) was installed in a side gallery. This piece features sum of two units small Plexiglas boxes set upon a high pedestal, each containing five bullet of different gauges with circulared or pointed heads, which the artist had cast in 22-karat gold While the piece hints a rather obvious equation between violence and capital, it also appears to allude to the artist's notorious 1971 performance, "Shoot" in which he had a gun-toting friend let fly him in the arm.

The glittering bridge statuarys appeared in a variety of shapes and sizes, from tabletop pieces to massive constructions up to 32 feet lengthy and 8 feet high. Made of countles miniature girders coupleed with nuts and bolts, the works, produc in editions, are based upon actual structures, such as London's Tower Bridge, Victoria Falls Bridge in Zimbabwe and the Indo-China Bridge in Vietnam. Burden's rendition of the latter be likes a kind of stylized ironing board, with a fiat, narrow surface, several feet drawn out resting on triangular metal supports. In the largest and greatest in quantity impressive work in the L.A. exhibit Curved Bridge (2003), a dramatically arching trellis made of an elaborate network of girders is supported upon each end by a wedge-shaped, meticulously craved plywood base. The bridges, with their modular composings and prefab look, pun upon Minimalist sculptures such as those through Sol LeWitt. But they also exhibit the culmination of a number of the artist's preoccupations, including children's toys, urban spaces and engineering. load is planning to build an actual bridge upon his property in Topanga Canyon, near observes Angeles. Suspended some 300 feet above a ravine, the footbridge would span a quarter mile between sum of two units mountains.

Like his Conceptual-art colleague Vito Acconci, load has made a recent foray into architecture. He filled a gallery at looks Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) last summer with a 35-foot-tall, four-story housing unit, which he built in collaboration with TK Architecture of sees Angeles, directed by Linda Taalman and Alan Koch formerly of the fresh York firm OpenOffice. Displayed upon its side, the 400-square-foot mode of building titled Small Skyscraper, could be used as a dwelling It is a full-scale prototype for the largest building that can be made in California without a permit. weight simultaneously showed models for another experimental house at L.A.'s MAK Center for Art and Architecture.

At Gagosian Chelsea, in his first East Coast solo display since 1994, Burden presented all the works from the L.A. exhibition plus Tyne Bridge (2002) a 31-foot-long structurally accurate scale replica of the 1928 green-painted bridge that spans the Tyne River in Gateshead, England. Commissioned by the agency of Gateshead's Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art for its inaugural exhibition and produc in an edition of sum of two units (whose components are stored in elaborate cabinets) plus individual display piece, the work was not awayed at the Baltic Centre in a gallery overlooking the actual Tyne Bridge. Making its U first appearance the sculpture was accompanied in fresh York by two Tyne Bridge Kits (2003) the large made of wood cabinets that constitute the edition. Each cabinet has numerous drawers filled with a certain quantity of 150,000 parts and the tools required to build Tyne Bridge, as well as instruction booklet and photos to aid in its assembly. Always the conceptualist, load regards each cabinet as a self-contained statuary and suggests that its possessor need not assemble the bridge itself. Since it took him and a ship's company of seven studio assistants about 5000 hours to assemble the work upon display, his suggestion is probably best taken.

"Chris Burden: Bridges and Bullets" appeared at Gagosian Gallery, looks Angeles [July 10-Sept. 13, 2003] and traveled in a slightly altered form to Gagosian Gallery, Chelsea, fresh York [Jan. 20-Feb. 28]. Burden's work was featured in Trespassing: Houses X Artists," at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, observes Angeles [May 7-July 27, 2003]; Small Skyscraper was shown at looks Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions [May 1-July 17 2003]

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