Response to Performance Art by Missy Ramsey

Chris Burden is a performance artist, that I believe takes you back by surprise!  Performance art is when the artist experiences and some how there is interaction with the audience.  The artist can be a single performer, or can be a group or digital and normally the performance is held in a gallery or in a museum.  When I observed Chris Burden nailed to the back of a volkswagon, it made me wonder what in the heck was he thinking when he did this?  What made him think of doing this?  What reaction was he trying to get out of his audience?

Chris Burden was not the only performance artist of his time, there was also "Hermann Nitsch in 1962 presented his “Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries” (Orgien- und Mysterien Theater), a form close to the performing arts, and a precursor to performance art."  When I look at this image, I can only imagin what he is trying to capture to his audience.  It is a very moving piece, and when I saw it, it took me back by surprise.  I believe that Burden aqnd Nitsch have the same idea for what type of response they are trying to get from their audiences.  I'm not a big fan for performance art, because I do not think I understand the way it should, but also I'm afriad that I might find something out about myself that I might not want to know...