TV Hijack, February 9, 1972

Chris Burden  (American, born Boston, Massachusetts, 1946)

Date:
1972
Medium:
Gelatin silver print; chromogenic print
Classification:
Photographs
Credit Line:
Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1993
Accession Number:
1993.325.10a–g
  • Description

    "On January 14 I was asked to do a piece on a local television station by Phyllis Lutjeans. After several proposals were censored by the station or by Phyllis, I agreed to an interview situation. I arrived at the station with my own video crew so that I could have my own tape. While the taping was in progress, I requested that the show be transmitted live. Since the station was not broadcasting [anything else] at the time, they complied. In the course of the interview, Phyllis asked me to talk about some of the pieces I had thought of doing. I demonstrated a TV hijack. Holding a knife at her throat, I threatened her life if the station stopped live transmission. I told her that I planned to make her perform obscene acts. At the end of the recording, I asked for the tape of the show. I unwound the reel and destroyed the show by dousing the tape with acetone. The station manager was irate, and I offered him my tape which included the show and its destruction, but he refused."

  • Notes

    a = contact sheet; b = light reading in studio; c = tv host on monitor; d = color image of artist; e = artist holding knife to host's throat; f = looking at filmstrips; g = artist with pile of film

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