TV Hijack. February 9, 1972
"On January 14 I was asked to do a piece on a local television station by Phyllis Lutjeans. After several proposals were censored by the station or by Phyllis, I agreed to an interview situation. I arrived at the station with my own video crew so that I could have my own tape. While the taping was in progress, I requested that the show be transmitted live. Since the station was not broadcasting [anything else] at the time, they complied. In the course of the interview, Phyllis asked me to talk about some of the pieces I had thought of doing. I demonstrated a TV hijack. Holding a knife at her throat, I threatened her life if the station stopped live transmission. I told her that I planned to make her perform obscene acts. At the end of the recording, I asked for the tape of the show. I unwound the reel and destroyed the show by dousing the tape with acetone. The station manager was irate, and I offered him my tape which included the show and its destruction, but he refused."
Artwork Details
- Title: TV Hijack. February 9, 1972
- Artist: Chris Burden (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1946–2015 Topanga Canyon, California)
- Date: 1972
- Medium: Gelatin silver print; chromogenic print
- Dimensions: Binder: 12 × 12 × 3 in. (30.5 × 30.5 × 7.6 cm)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1993
- Object Number: 1993.325.10a–g
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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