The work of seminal contemporary artist Chris Burden, insightfully contextualized around major themes, illuminates a practice that is as unique as it is influential. For four decades, Chris Burden's work has redefined the boundaries of the sculptural field. Whether subjecting himself to extremes of physical suffering or reconfiguring forgotten urban objects and toy models to create potent signifiers of a time and place, the brute force of Burden's work in the physical realm reverberates through the psychic one. On the occasion of the New Museum's focused survey of Burden's work, this book provides new perspectives on his art. Organized around themes like the Myth of the American West, the Institution, Gender Roles, and Model Making, the book reexamines preoccupations that span the artist's long career.

Essays, dialogues, and art projects that illuminate the changing role of art as it responds to radical economic, political, and global shifts. How should we understand the purpose of publicly engaged art in the twenty-first century, when the very term "public art" is largely insufficient to describe such practices? Concepts such as "new genre public art," "social practice," or "socially engaged art" may imply a synergy between the role of art and the role of government in providing social services. Yet the arts and social services differ crucially in terms of their methods and metrics. Socially engaged artists need not be aligned (and may often be opposed) to the public sector and to institutionalized systems. In many countries, structures of democratic governance and public responsibility are shifting, eroding, and being remade in profound ways-driven by radical economic, political, and global forces. According to what terms and through what means can art engage with these changes? This volume gathers essays, dialogues, and art projects-some previously published and some newly commissioned-to illuminate the ways the arts shape and reshape a rapidly changing social and governmental landscape. An artist portfolio section presents original statements and projects by some of the key figures grappling with these ideas.