Skip to content

Chris Burden
The Brief Life of 14 Magnolia Doubles, 2007

Image of 14 large lamps positioned on the side of the South London Gallery's main gallery. The art work is called 14 magnolia Doubles and it is made by the artist Chris Burden.

Chris Burden, The Brief Life of 14 Magnolia Doubles, 2007, Mixed media.

The brief life of 14 Magnolia Doubles is a mixed media piece by the artist Chris Burden. It was created following his 2006 exhibition at SLG, 14 Magnolia Double Lamps, for which Burden installed fourteen 1920s cast iron lampposts in the gallery. The exhibition explored the use of European design in American urban planning, and the links between wealth and the provision of public lights. The piece The Brief life of 14 Magnolia Doubles uses annotated photographs and diagrams to document the lampposts’ journey from a yard in North Hollywood to the South London Gallery. It also shows the piece’s subsequent return to Los Angeles, where the lampposts are now permanently installed in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.