As we continue to enjoy the Chris Burden retrospective currently on display at New York City’s New Museum, the exhibition seems to have sparked something of an even further curiosity in his public work. The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University—situated just outside of Boston, Burden’s native city—announced that Burden has been commissioned to create a large-scale outdoor work. Titled Light of Reason, the piece takes inspiration by a quote from Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis himself: “If we would guide by the light of reason, we must let our minds be bold.”
In the piece, three rows of concrete benches and repurposed, formerly discarded Victorian lampposts fan out from the entrance to the museum. University officials said in a press release the lights will also be installed with the principles of sustainability in mind.
Burden has a similar outdoor work based on light at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, titled Urban Light. His work in light previously included Fist of Light, a massive sealed metal box full of hundreds of burning halide lights inside, a piece that became so hot it needed an industrial air conditioner to cool the room it was situated in. That piece emitted no light.
Light of Reason is expected to be complete by April 2014.
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[via BrandeisNOW]
