Chris Burden
Scale Model of the Solar System, 1983
A scale model, both in size and distance, of the Solar System. The Sun (865,000 miles in diameter) is represented by a sphere 13 inches in diameter and 40 inches in circumference. The planets of the Solar System, constructed to the correct scale, are placed at the correct scale distance across the city. The distance from the Sun varies from 36 feet for Mercury, the closest planet, to almost a mile away for Pluto, the farthest planet. — Chris Burden
PLANET LOCATIONS [TO NAVIGATE, SEE GOOGLE MAP BELOW]
THE SUN [865,000 miles (1,392,000 km)] in diameter) is represented by a sphere 13 inches (33 cm) in diameter and 40 inches (101.6 cm) in circumference. The planets of the Solar System, constructed to the correct scale, are placed at the correct scale distance across the city. The distance from the Sun varies from 36 feet (10.9 m) for Mercury, the closest planet, to almost a mile for Pluto, the farthest planet. The location of each planet, installed at its correct scale distance, is indicated on the map. The Sun is located in The Warehouse, Dallas.
MERCURY [3,100 miles (4,880 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 0.05 inches (.127 cm) in diameter. In this installation Mercury is located in The Warehouse, Dallas, since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 36 feet (10.9 m) [28.6 million miles (45.9 million km)] and a maximum of 55 feet (16.75 m) (43.5 million miles (69.7 million km)].
VENUS [7,700 miles (12,104 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 0.12 inches (.305 cm) in diameter. Venus is located in The Warehouse, Dallas, Gallery 8 (with works by Birgir Andrésson and Michelangelo Pistoletto), since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 83.6 feet (25.5 m) [66.8 million miles (107.4 million km)] and a maximum of 84.8 feet (25.8 m) [67.7 million miles (109 million km)].
EARTH [7,900 miles (12,756 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 0.12 inches (.305cm) in diameter. Earth is located in The Warehouse, Dallas, Gallery 7 (with works by Birgir Andrésson, Soun-Gui Kim, and Simone Leigh), since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 114 feet (34.7 m) [91.3 million miles (147.1 million km)] and a maximum of 118 feet (35.9 m) [94.4 million miles (152.1 million km)].
MARS [4,200 miles (6,787 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 0.063 inches (.16 cm) in diameter. Mars is located in The Warehouse, Dallas, Gallery 16 (with works by Pia Arke, Tom Friedman, Jeremy Millar, Howardena Pindell, Walid Raad, and Carey Young), since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 160 feet (48.7m) [128.2 million miles (207 million km)] and a maximum of 193 feet (58.8 m) (154.6 million miles (249 million km)].
JUPITER [88,770 miles (142,800 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 1.33 inches (3.38 cm) in diameter. Jupiter is located in Paradigm Studios (visible from front window only, not accessible inside), since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 576 feet (175.5 m) [460.2 million miles (740 million km)] and a maximum of 634 feet (193.2 m) [506.4 million miles (816 million km)].
SATURN [75,100 miles (120,000 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 1.13 inches (2.87 cm) in diameter. Saturn is located in Urban Spikes front window (visible from front window, inside view accessible during open hours), since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 1,047 feet (319 m) [836.5 million miles (1,346.4 million km)] and a maximum of 1,172 feet (357 m) (935.8 million miles (1,511 million km)].
URANUS [11,470 miles (51,800 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 0.17 inches (.43 cm) in diameter. Uranus is located inside The Cultured Cup (visible from front window, inside view accessible during open hours), since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 2,126 feet (647.7 m) [1,698 million miles (2,742 million km)] and a maximum of 2,336 feet (711.7 m) [1,866 million miles (3,800 million km)].
NEPTUNE [10,540 miles (49,500 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 0.16 inches (.41 cm) in diameter. Neptune is located in the Galleria Dallas, Level 1 (between Westin Galleria Dallas and Banana Republic) since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 3,465 feet (1,055.7 m) [2,767 million miles (4,460 million km)] and a maximum of 3,528 feet (1074 .9 m) [2,817 million miles (4,540 million km)].
PLUTO [3,370 miles (6,000 km) in diameter] would be the size of a sphere 0.05 inches (.13 cm) in diameter. Pluto is located in Greenhill School, Korenvaes Upper School (visible from front window only, not accessible inside), since its distance from the Sun would vary due to its elliptical orbit between a minimum of 3,440 feet (1,048 m) [2,748 million miles (4,425 million km)] and a maximum of 5,720 feet (1,742.7 m) [4,569 million miles (7,400 million km)].
PLANET LOCATOR [Click on the square in the top right corner to open in Google Maps.]
From his action-based works of the 1970s to the jaw-dropping technical feats of his later sculptures, Chris Burden (1946–2015) consistently challenged his mental and physical limitations, reflecting on the surreal and precarious realities of contemporary life. Burden was a radical and uncompromising figure with a fierce political consciousness.
Burden earned his MFA in 1971 from the University of California, Irvine, where he studied under the conceptual artist Robert Irwin. Like Irwin—whose site-specific architectural interventions consider the effects of space and light on the viewer—Burden was interested in the staging of spectacle and the ways in which art could complicate one’s understanding of the material world. In his early performances Burden responded to the violent realities of the Vietnam War by putting his body at risk. For Five Day Locker Piece (1971), he locked himself into a school locker, drinking water from a five-gallon bottle stored in the locker above and urinating into a five-gallon bottle in the locker below. That same year, for Shoot, Burden’s friend shot him in the left arm from a distance of fifteen feet. The piece, which lasted only about eight seconds, was recorded on Super-8 film.
In the late 1970s Burden turned to monumental sculpture, considering how the scale and placement of public infrastructure could be manipulated in order to explore the implications of power, speed, and balance. In 1979 he created The Big Wheel, a kinetic work composed of a 1968 Benelli motorcycle placed on a wooden frame and attached to a nineteenth-century metal flywheel. When the bike is mounted and revved, the flywheel is set into motion.
This industrial thrill continued in the 1980s and 1990s with Beam Drop (1984/2008)—a work that involved dropping I beams from a crane into a large pit of wet concrete—and Medusa’s Head (1990), an amorphous mass of wood, steel, cement, rock, and model railroad trains and tracks, evocative of a country-sized chunk of earth that has been extracted and squished into a ball. Beam Drop was re-created in 2008 at the Inhotim Institute in Brazil, where its final, sculptural product is now permanently installed, while Medusa’s Head is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
In 2000 Burden began collecting street lamps from the 1920s and 1930s, once used in residential neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and repurposing them as sculptural installations. This led to his celebrated permanent installation Urban Light (2008), comprising 202 lampposts, at the entrance to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Starting in 2003, Burden also constructed large-scale models of bridges—both real and imagined—with thousands of toy construction parts. Tower of London Bridge (2003) mimics every aspect of the famous bridge’s suspension design, including the functional drawbridge, and Three Arch Dry Stack Bridge, 1/4 Scale (2013)—first exhibited in Extreme Measures (2013–14), a major survey of Burden’s work at the New Museum in New York—comprises three elegant arches made of hand-cast concrete blocks held together by gravity.
Burden’s last completed work, Ode to Santos Dumont (2015), is a kinetic airship modeled after Alberto Santos-Dumont’s 1901 dirigible that flew around the Eiffel Tower. Built over a ten-year period, it achieves indoor flight in fifteen-minute intervals and simultaneously embodies both ambitions of industrial invention and reveries of childhood marvels.