6. Trans-Fixed – Chris Burden
Suffering for your art – even at Christmas: in 1974, performance artist Chris Burden was nailed to the back of a Volkswagen Beetle, which was pushed out of a garage, the engine revved for two minutes, and then pushed back into the garage. Certainly, the piece is suggestive of Christ’s crucifixion and even the title ‘Trans-Fixed’ references the concept of transubstantiation, the process whereby the bread and wine of the Eucharist become the body and blood of Christ. Although the artist may subsequently have had trouble pulling his Christmas crackers.