Chris Burden’s “Tale of Two Cities” is an inexplicable usage of tremendous amounts of, arguably, some of the most rare Japanese Die-cast toys from the 1970’s. Depicting them as “war machines” – it features a full Voltes V DX Chogokin from Popy , a Mekanda Dx from Bullmark, and a massive array of standard size Mekandas and Dougram toys. There is also a large DX size Gardian, flanks of Go-Lions (Voltrons to you Americans). An over 5000 piece head count of toys used. You see lots and lots of variety: Popynica, Mekanda vehicles, Building kits, Takara designs… It’s vast. There are even multiple Onriki characters in random placements… Probably the most comical of placements is the Ark Kong, dismembered by a bomb blast.
Vignette photos through binoculars – Elise Gallant 
This work has endured, despite it’s creator: “A Tale of Two Cities” – 1981, was set to be destroyed in 2013, by Chris Burden himself.
“The violent destruction Burden proposed would have served as a conceptual and literal ending to the battle depicted in the installation. “That was more metaphoric—I was trying to illustrate the fluid nature of the work,” Burden says. “The work of art would still exist, but it would be rubble.”
“The Orange County museum paid for two-thirds of the $50,000 project and the New Museum financed the rest. The work “was not in an exhibitable state” before the treatment, says Lisa Phillips, the director of the New Museum. Its cardboard bases had grown mould and warped, causing the miniature roads and buildings to topple. It took one conservator five weeks simply to vacuum sand and residue out of each individual component. Meanwhile, Williams and her team searched eBay for replacements for broken or lost toys. Others they repaired by hand.”
Now, A Tale of Two Cities “looks bright and crisp—the roadways and airports all look new”, says Dennis Szakacs, the director of the Orange County museum. “When it was shown as recently as 2007, I had a sneaking feeling that I was going to be unhappy [with the state of the work], so I didn’t go to see it,” Burden says. “I’m really pleased it has been brought back to life.”
Conservation is an important part of caring for any work, be it toy based or not. So it’s great to see the resources and lengths to retain the original vision that museums will go through.
This makes a great case for proper care and storage and handling of toys. Hopefully Object will get the call that we can save some history, retain some dignity and posterity for museums and collectors alike.
Chris Burden’s “Extreme Measures” is on view at the New Museum until January 12th, 2013.
Read the full article from The Art Newspaper Here – http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Burdens-war-saved-from-brink/30483
We also “used” some photos form this Gizmodo Australian article – http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/10/how-a-porsche-a-meteorite-and-4-million-in-gold-ended-up-in-a-museum/
