Gagosian visits Chris Burden’s studio in Topanga, California, to take a look at his nearly complete kinetic sculpture Metropolis II (2011) before it is installed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

One of American artist Chris Burden's most intricate works, Metropolis II was installed at LACMA in 2011, and the heaping hypnotic structure continues to dazzle audiences to this day. Chris Burden's Metropolis II A kinetic installation from one of America's most influential modern artists. Artist Chris Burden used the film by German director Fritz Lang as the inspiration for his racetrack sculpture and spent four years building Metropolis II. Chris Burden was a seminal American performance artist. Burden’s gigantic kinetic installation may not be the prettiest work showing in an art gallery, but the sheer scale of planning and execution alone could easily rival the meticulous detail of some of the great painters’ works. Infamously, performance artist Chris Burden asked someone to shoot him in a gallery. "What's really stressful is the stop and go; high speed, low speed; where it speeds up and slows down," Chris Burden said in a short documentary by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. Four years in the making, Metropolis II – by American artist Chris Burden – is a breathtaking piece of work, on many levels. American sculptor and performance artist, Chris Burden, who was known for his works in the extreme, passed away May 10, 2015. They’re both drawn to Chris Burden’s “Metropolis II,” an epic art installation that looks like a toy racetrack or train set on speed. The armature of the piece is constructed of steel beams, forming an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of eighteen roadways, including a six-lane freeway, train tracks, and hundreds of buildings. Burden does not claim Metropolis II as a utopian vision, and unlike Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis which inspired him, this is not a dystopian vision either. Four years in the making, Metropolis II – by American artist Chris Burden – is a breathtaking piece of work, on many levels. 3 May 2017. ... Chris Burden's Metropolis II, The Movie “Only in the speed of the cars is this the city of the future,” he says. Chris Burden has produced some of the most shocking works in the history of 20 th century American art, including spending five days and nights in the fetal position inside a locker, having a spectator push pins into his body, being "crucified" to a Volkswagen Beetle, being kicked down two flights of stairs, and even having himself shot. Through their development and evolution, cities constitute an infinite material for the imaginative world of artists. Unconcerned with scale, Burden instead strives to re-create the frenetic energy of a city as tiny toy cars zoom along straight skyways and around sharp turns.

Created by artist Chris Burden, Metropolis II (2010) is a complex, large-scale kinetic sculpture modeled after a fast-paced modern city. Steel beams form an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of 18 roadways, including one six lane freeway, and HO scale train tracks. Burden’s gigantic kinetic installation may not be the prettiest work showing in an art gallery, but the sheer scale of planning and execution alone could easily rival the meticulous detail of some of the great painters’ works. Summary of Chris Burden. Chris Burden's Metropolis II is an intense kinetic sculpture, modeled after a fast paced, frenetic modern city. His controversial works of art often involved putting himself in physical danger or extreme discomfort, most memorably in his iconic Shoot (1971) performance. Shot and crucified: The extreme art of Chris Burden.

Created by artist Chris Burden, Metropolis II (2010) is a complex, large-scale kinetic sculpture modeled after a fast-paced modern city. A probing portrait of Chris Burden, an artist who took creative expression to the limits and risked his life in the name of art.

Many of his works were best described as “shocking”, and the radical nature of his work is what set him apart from other twentieth-century American artists.

Chris Burden created Metropolis II in his Topanga, California studio and spent four years working on it with an engineer. Directed by Richard Dewey, Timothy Marrinan. With Chris Burden, Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Larry Bell. Article - Artist Chris Burdens gives a frenzied vision of tomorrow’s metropolis. Miniature cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour; every hour, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulate through the dense network …

How Chris Burden Created Metropolis II, A Tiny City Where 1,100 Toy Cars Zoom. We speak with the artist about creating a years-in-the-making mechanical masterpiece.

"It wasn't about making a scale model of something. Dreamed as creative entities or as attractive spaces, they help us build new ways of thinking about our society’s future.

By John Pavlus 3 minute Read. The model city features 1,100 toy cars zipping around a track through miniature skyscrapers, at speeds of up to 230mph.

Conveyor belts and magnets power the 1100 miniature cars. The armature of the piece is constructed of steel beams, forming an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of eighteen roadways, including a six-lane freeway, train tracks, and hundreds of buildings. Chris Burden at the opening of Metropolis II.