Burden believed that intense actions such as this would force the audience to consider the nature of violence. For his 1973 work Through the Night Softly, he stripped naked, tied his hands behind his back and dragged himself across a floor that was covered in broken glass. This entire act was video taped. Burden then bought a few seconds of commercial airtime and played the tape on national television in eight to ten second installments. The footage was shown once every night for several weeks in between commercials. .
Burden continued to utilize the popular conception of brutality as a means to shock with his 1974 work entitled Transfixed. For this piece he nailed himself to the back of a Volkswagen Beetle in the crucifix position while other local artists took turns driving him around town. (Horvitz). Though the image was disturbing for those who witnessed it, Burden took great effort in using thin, sharp nails and felt very little pain. (People Weekly 55). With Transfixed, Burden was attempting to connect the ideas of consumerism and faith by combining the religiously significant act with an emblem of popular culture.
That same year for his piece he called Doorway to Heaven, Burden photographed himself being burned by electrical wires. Included with the photograph was this description: "At 6 pm I stood in the doorway of my studio. A few spectators watched as I pushed two live electric wires into my chest. The wires crossed and exploded, burning me, but saving me from electrocution." (Modern Art 569). In another experiment with electricity, this one perhaps even more frightening, Burden laid strapped to the floor of a gallery with a large bucket of water holding live electrical wires balanced beside him. Any spectator who wished could have tipped over the bucket and subsequently killed Burden. .
This was not the only time Burden placed himself in a gallery at the mercy of the audience.
