Last art piece by Chris Burden flies around on display at LACMA

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A monumental performance sculpture is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and it is the last piece artist Chris Burden completed before his death.

The helium-filled balloon flies using its own power and the performance sculpture was 10 years in the making.

Burden died of malignant melanoma on May 10. He kept the illness private.

Visitors at LACMA know Burden for his "Urban Light" installation, the city streetlights that are assembled at the front of the museum.

Burden titled the moving sculpture "Ode to Santos-Dumont." He spent nearly a decade bringing the piece to fruition as a tribute to the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont.

In 1901, Santos-Dumont circled the Eiffel Tower in his propelled dirigible and proved that man's flight could be controlled.

For LACMA, this exhibit is a bittersweet triumph and a fitting legacy for Burden.

"When I saw this work fly the first time, it was hard not to see Chris's own spirit in it. This light thing that finds its way through the air with just enough power," said Michael Govan, director of LACMA.

Burden collaborated with a machinist to create a scale-replica of an old gas motor while he built the piece. The "Ode to Santos-Dumont" flies on a tether in a precise 60-foot circle.

The piece will fly for just one month at the LACMA, but it won't fly every day of the week. To find out when the piece will be displayed, check LACMA.org.