Megan and Murray McMillan

Chris Burden’s Shoot

If you read Megan’s earlier post about UCLA Art Prof/artist-well-known-for-having-himself-shot-in-a-gallery (“my kid could do that”) Chris Burden and his student-who-didn’t-get-in-school-trouble-for-doing-a-real-Russian-roulette-performance-which-made-Burden-mad then you have an idea of what I’m bracing for as I prepare to teach Installation and Performance Art this semester.

My syllabus is half an inch thick with legalese. I’m tickled that my spell checker recognized legalese. What a sexy word.

I’m trying something different with this class this semester. I’m gonna throw in a chapters focusing on lighting and interior design. I like to mix the technical with the conceptual, I think students will be better prepared for the final underwater exhibition.

Water brings projects to their knees. Plans always sound good on paper and conversation. Water. Water is the most vicious, unforgiving, brutal and persnickety media that ever looked cross-eyed and spit in the direction of that thing next to art.

The spell checker also knows persnickety, a word with thorns.