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Gendering Chris Burden’s TV Ads

From 1973 to 1977, Los Angeles-based performance artist Chris Burden bought commercial time to provide a stage for his artwork. Late night TV viewers in Southern California didn’t know that his TV Ads were performance art works that were happening in the comforts of their living room. Chris Burden’s TV Ads are easily found on YouTube, you can see them here. His artwork generally focused on masculinity and pushing his body to the extreme.

I wanted to modernize this template in the form of YouTube commercials and flip the gender paradigm of these works by focusing on the sacrifices made by women, especially nurturers and mothers. Women are the conscience of society.  Unfortunately, the important role of mother is often overlooked. Mothers care for, and are the stabilizing voice in, society.

I hope that you enjoy these commercials. They were filmed in January, before Covid-19 broke out. I am surprised how timely these have become. I would like to thank The College of Fine Arts and Communications Film and Digital Media Fund at BYU for giving me the opportunity to see this project through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPugozKNJ8oScreen Shot 2020-09-17 at 10.05.26 AM