Artist Chris Burden (b. 1946, Boston, MA; d. 2015, Topanga, CA)’s long involvement with OCMA and his pivotal role in the local art community constitute a vital segment of the museum’s history. In 1971, Burden graduated from MFA program at the University of California, Irvine, with his unconventional thesis project: he spent five days locked in a school locker with only a five-gallon container of water suspended in the locker above him for hydration and an empty five-gallon bottle below for waste. He presented several performances at F Space, a student-run gallery in Santa Ana, where he performed his groundbreaking work Shoot (1971). His later sculptures and installations like A Tale of Two Cities (1981) and Large Glass Ship (1983), both part of OCMA’s collection, explore the complexities of a society dominated by technological, economic, and political forces.

 

Burden’s A Tale of Two Cities (1981) features over a thousand toys from the United States, Japan, and Europe, encapsulating his obsession with military paraphernalia and historical miniatures. Inspired by Charles Dickens’s novel of the same title, Burden constructed two miniature city-states—big city versus small city—poised for war with a third-party arms supplier, represented by robots. Set on a sand base symbolizing the earth and sea, the detailed terrain mirrors Southern California’s diverse landscape, encompassing residential, commercial, and military zones.

 

Through building “a model of the modern world,” Burden reflects on the contradictions and underlying messages in modern society, highlighting how playthings can mirror and critique the structures and ideologies that govern our lives.