At MoMA: Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration

April 2, 2012 Allan Event Notice, Fluxus History

With the hype surrounding the Cindy Sherman blockbuster retrospective on the 6th floor, which critics have almost unanimously praised, I was surprised to find that the most invigorating, exciting and generally mind-blowing exhibition at MoMA right now is Exquisite Corpses: Drawing and Disfiguration, a small drawing show on the third floor.

Proving the continued importance and relevance of Surrealist art, Exquisite Corpses demonstrates that exhibitions do not have to be the biggest or display the hottest contemporary artist to be invigorating. These works easily delve into important artistic issues about the representation of not only the human figure but also the thoughts, emotions, sexuality and experiences contained within it.

The exquisite corpse drawings of the Surrealists were basically an artistic game that invited different artists to take turns drawing a part of the body until it is complete. The result distorts and twists the figure into something I think can be more psychologically true to the human form than academic figure drawing. The works in Exquisite Corpses range from original Surrealist pieces from the 1920s to later work by Georges Bataille, Louise Bourgeoise, Jackson Pollock and contemporary artists such as George Condo and Marcel Dzarma.

Full article on Hyperallergic.com

Cadavre Exquis with Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró, Max Morise, and Man Ray, "Nude" (1926-27), composite drawing of ink, pencil, and colored pencil on paper (via moma.org)

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Ay-O: Over the Rainbow Once More

March 6, 2012 Allan Artists, Fluxus, Fluxus History

 

Museum of Contemporary
Art Tokyo
 A-Yo image  

 

Ay-O: Over the Rainbow Once More
4 February–6 May 2012

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
4-1-1 Miyoshi, Koto-ku
Tokyo 135-0022 Japan

www.mot-art-museum.jp 
Ay-O, “My 192 Friends,” 2011. 
Ay-O: Over the Rainbow Once More 

Discover the vibrant world of Ay-O through this retrospective of his work, covering his entire career, from his early works to the present day.

Born in Ibaraki Prefecture in 1931, Ay-O, together with Masuo Ikeda and others, was active in the Demokrato Artists Association during the fifties, attracting notice for his brightly-colored oil paintings. In 1958 he moved to New York, where he used tangible objects to try to create dialogues with the world that can be perceived through the senses, resulting in his ‘finger boxes’, in which a finger is inserted into a hole in the side of a box to feel the material hidden inside, installation works that incorporate their surrounding environment, etc., going beyond the confines of the painting to produce works that appeal to the five senses. During the sixties, when everyday things or actions were translated into art, Ay-O received attention for his pioneering installations that he called ‘environments’. As a member of the Fluxus movement, which went beyond the narrow divisions of genre to include musicians, poets and artists, its activities extending to performances and printed works to establish the foundations of today’s diversity of art, he worked with such people as Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik. Finally, he rebelled against the concept of creating works consisting of lines, instead filling his motifs with the colors of the spectrum, from red to purple, giving birth to his ‘rainbow’ works, becoming famous throughout the world as the ‘rainbow artist’ subsequent to his exhibition at the 1966 Venice Biennale. Ay-O’s struggle with the rainbow was expressed in a variety of genres including prints, paintings and installations, and still continues to the present day. This is the largest-ever exhibition to be held of his work, presenting numerous paintings from the rainbow series, an interactive installation that people are invited to appreciate through touch, a new work that is 30 meters in length and contains a rainbow consisting of 192 colors, a 300 meters long banner that was suspended from the Eiffel Tower in 1987 and recordings of his performance works. The gallery will overflow with Ay-O’s optimistic world.

Curator:
Mihoko Nishikawa (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo)

Organized by:
Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Japan Association of Art Museums

Exhibition Catalogue:
To be published in March 2012.
New and past text by Ay-O
English-Japanese bilingual

Press Contact:
Mutsu Yoshikawa
m-yoshikawa@mot-art.jp

Reiko Noguchi
r-noguchi@mot-art.jp
T +81(0)3-5245-1134(Direct）
F +81(0)3-5245-1141
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Yoko Ono: Imagine Peace for Fluxfest Chicago

February 3, 2012 Allan Commentary, Event Notice, Fluxus

http://imaginepeace.com/archives/16853

Nice plug from Yoko for contemporary Fluxus. Now… If only she would grace us with a surprise visit too! Wouldn’t that be sweet?

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Fluxfest Chicago 2012 – Poster and Schedule

February 3, 2012 Allan Event Notice, Fluxus


 

FLUXFEST CHICAGO 2012

February 9th – 12th, 2012

Feb 9th 5:00pm – 7:30pm
FROM THE ARCHIVE
Mailart and Fluxus from the archives of Fluxus/St. Louis.
Opening reception
Chicago Art Institute, Joan Flasch Artists Book Collection. 37 S. Wabash, 5th Floor.

Feb 10th 2:00pm – 5pm
FLUX IT YOURSELF
Scores and Performances by Contemporary Fluxus.
Publication Exposition and live performances Coordinated by Fluxpress.
Columbia College Center For Book and Paper Arts ,1104 S. Wabash Av.

Feb 10th 6:00pm
Flux Dinner
The Artist’s Cafe, 412 S. Michigan Av.

Feb 11th 11:00am-5:00pm
Fluxus Day at the Chicago Cultural Center
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., 2nd Floor.

Feb 11th 11:00am – 5:00pm
Mailart Creation Station
An ongoing space with supplies for making and sending Mailart, informing and interacting with the public.
Coordinated by Stampland, Neosho, and Adamandia Kapsalis.

Feb 11th 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Fluxhibition 5.4
small flux-works will travel from the Fluxmuseum Collection to be shown and shared for the day.
Coordinated by Cecil Touchon and the Fluxmuseum.

Feb 11th 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Flux Free For All
over 2000 small fluxworks from postcards to stamps and small objects to be given away … take what you wish.

Feb 11th 1:00pm –1:45pm
Women In Bowlers
a celebration of the women of Fluxus – from its beginnings till now, Coordinated by Picasso Gaglione with Dada Machine Fluxus.

Feb 11th 2:00pm – 2:45pm
Long Form Flux
Longer performance pieces happening throughout the hallways stairwells and niches of the Cultural Center .

Feb 11th 3:00pm – 3:45pm
Be Blank Consort
Avant poetry performance Coordinated by John M. Bennett.

Feb 11th 4:00pm – 5:00pm
One Ring Circus
Contemporary Fluxus scores performed under the G.A.R. dome.

ongoing (8:00am – 6:00pm)
Write Now – Artists And Letterforms
A major exhibition that showcases a diverse range of recent works by artists utilizing letters and text in a wide array of mediums.

ongoing (8:00am – 6:00pm)
The Fluxus, Mailart, and Visual Poetry Project
coordinated by Keith A. Buchholz, is located on and around a 30 ft. long wall as part of this exhibition, and will be open during the day.
Exhibition curated by Nathan Mason.

Feb 11th 6:30 pm
The New York Correspondence School of Chicago Dinner
The Berghoff 17 W. Adams
An extension of Ray Johnson’s historic New York Correspondence School Meetings,
The Berghoff once again welcomes us for a special meal … Bring Mail art Multiples to share and swap. Hosted by The New York Correspondence School of Chicago.

Feb 12th 12:00pm – 4:00pm
FLUX FILM FEST
6018 NORTH, 6018 N. Kenmore, in the Edgewater Neighborhood.
A matinee festival of New Fluxus Film
with a special screening of RE: MACIUNAS a new film by Jonas Mekas – Made for the Lithuanian Biennial. Also, an opportunity to explore 6018 NORTH – a new grassroots non-profit arts center for Performance, Sound, and Alternative Art.
Coordinated by Tricia Van Eck, 6018 North, Andrew Oleksiuk, and Fluxus STL Archive.

This FLUXFEST is Organized by Keith A. Buchholz, and The Contemporary Fluxus Community.
For Further info contact Keith at:
Keith9963@sbcglobal.net
or phone 314-276-4802

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Fluxfest 2012 – Chicago

December 23, 2011 Allan Event Notice, Fluxus

February 9th – 12th, 2012
International Fluxus is gearing up for 4 days of performance and activity in Chicago this February, and are hoping that everyone who can, will join in the festival. If you can’t make it in person, we’d still love to have you included. Please send a score that could be performed, or a simple multiple in an edition of 50 or more that we can give away. More details below …

FLUXFEST CHICAGO 2012 February 9th – 12th, 2012

Feb 9th – Opening of FROM THE ARCHIVE – Mailart and Fluxus from the archives of Fluxus/St. Louis.
@ Chicago Art Institute, Joan Flasch Library.
An afternoon opening reception for an exhibit of works that have accumulated at the archive ( if you’ve never sent Mailart or anything to the archive ..send it now and Keith will make sure it’s included in the show )

Feb. 10th . FLUX IT YOURSELF : Scores and Performances by Contemporary Fluxus

Tentative Location : Center For Book Arts, Chicago ( kind of a DIY free for all, where we can do whatever scores we like, plus a one day long exposition of publications ) either send publications to Keith Buchholz ahead of time, or bring them along.

Feb 10th 6:00pm “Flux Dinner” @ The Artist’s Cafe, Chicago
An informal get together at a Chicago landmark …. also an opportunity to sign posters and catch up with each other.

Feb 11th 11-5pm Fluxus Day at the Chicago Cultural Center
an amazing performance space, and an event sponsored by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

PLUS several events to participate in …

  1. Mailart Creation Station – an ongoing space with supplies for making and sending Mailart, informing and interacting with the public.
  2. Women In Bowlers – a celebration of the women of Fluxus – from its beginnings till now, coordinated by Picasso Gaglione with Dada Machine Fluxus, and everyone who wants to perform.
  3. One Ring Circus – Contemporary Fluxus scores performed by taking turns … I’ll be there with a sign up sheet, and announce ( like we did last year at the MCA and at ABC No Rio ) ….
  4. Long Form Flux – Plenty of room for longer durational pieces to be ongoing .. Let me know what you want to do & we’ll work it in … we have lots of space to work with,
    also hallways and stairwells … Bring your Ideas
  5. Fluxhibition 5.4 – Cecil Touchon will once again transport valises filled with small flux-works from the Fluxmuseum Collection to show and share for the day.
  6. Free For All – Please either bring or send ahead a multiple, publication or postcard in an edition of 50 or more that can be given away to the public. Last year was amazing .. over 50 different pieces came in, and all were distributed … that’s 2500 works that went out in a day ….how cool is that! I’ll be collecting 8 full sets to box and donate to archives. ( Last years boxes ended up in MOMA, Ohio State, The Sackner Collection, Chicago Art Institute, MCA Chicago, and more…. )

Feb. 11th ongoing ( 8am – 6pm ) Write Now – Artists And Letterforms

A major exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center that showcases a diverse range of recent works by artists utilizing letters and text in a wide array of mediums. * The ” Fluxus, Mailart, and Visual Poetry Project ” that many of us are in, is located on and around a 30 ft. long wall as part of this exhibition, and will be open during the day.

Feb 11th 6:30 pm – The New York Correspondence School of Chicago Dinner

The Berghoff, host restaurant of last year’s Correspondence Dinner, once again
welcomes us for a special meal … Bring Mail art and Multiples to share and swap.

Feb 12th ” Flux Film Fest ” @ 6018 NORTH.

A matinee festival of New Fluxus Film ( send me your film work now on DVD, so we can get the schedule set up. ) with a special screening of RE: MACIUNAS a new film by Jonas Mekas – Made for us for the Lithuanian Biennial. Also, an opportunity to explore 6018 NORTH – a new grassroots non-profit arts center for Performance, Sound, and Alternative Art .. this amazing space is in process, and will become the new Public Home of the Mailart / Fluxus archive that I’ve been accumulating … (by next year our Archive Space will be completed, with a viewing room for Mailart / Fluxus works and publications, and walls to do special exhibitions from the archive.

* If you’re sending works ahead of time please

Clearly Mark them as for Fluxfest / Chicago.

* send to this address:

Fluxfest Chicago

c/o Keith A. Buchholz

3449 Hartford St.
St. Louis, Mo.

63118

U.S.A.

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What is Fluxus? What is not?

October 23, 2011 Allan Commentary, Fluxus

There have never been really solid lines demarking where Fluxus starts and stops.

To my mind there are some things that are clearly Fluxus and others that are clearly not Fluxus, but there is a heck of a lot of grey in between. For example, I am not currently aware of any pure audio art (sound art without a background event score or visible performers) that was made or exhibited during the first Fluxus era. But I think that sound art is the ultimate expression of Intermedia, and Intermedia is/was fundamental to understanding Fluxus.

The writing of event scores, performance of event scores, fluxboxes, fluxkits, and the type of work typically included in a fluxbox (visual poetry, experimental poetry, drawings and texts, small found objects and multiples) probably constituted the majority of work that could easily be classified as Fluxus. But even in the first Fluxus era, the scope of Intermedia and work presented as Fluxus by its practitioners extended beyond those forms.

In the era of the Internet the world of Intermedia has become the new normal. It seems only natural that the combination of technical media intersections and online social networking should lead to a renaissance of new Fluxus that while not the same as the old Fluxus, is never-the-less a natural extension of it. I believe that the group of artists that I am associated with is a natural extension of Fluxus, and that we are indeed a legitimate new Fluxus community.

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Fluxus Weekend in NYC (November 11, 2011)

September 24, 2011 admin Event Notice, Fluxus

In the spirit of Fluxus, Performa will produce an intensive 52-hour program (Friday, November 11, 5:00 pm) across New York City, collaborating with members of the Performa Consortium. A five-part program will be presented in several key Fluxus forms, honoring the history and prompting the making of new Fluxus actions, objects, music, film, and ideas for the twenty-first century. The projects, ranging in size from large events to small-scale gestures, will be concentrated in downtown Manhattan in tribute to Fluxus history, and to George Maciunas and the Fluxus pioneers who lived and worked there.

Organized by Mark Beasley, Esa Nickle, Lana Wilson, and Biennial Consortium members with Liutauras Psibilskis.

Information courtesy of Mary Campbell

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Ralph Waldo Emerson and Fluxus?

July 17, 2011 Allan Commentary

I ask not for the great, the remote, the romantic … I embrace the common, I explore and sit at the feet of the familiar, the low. Give me insight into today, and you may have the antique and future worlds.

The quote above is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, as found in Ken Friedman‘s essay, Fluxus: A Laboratory of Ideas, in the exhibition catalog for Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life, currently on view at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.

While I am far from certain about how Ralph Waldo would react in the presence of Fluxus activity, he does seem to foreshadow and important element of the Fluxus philosophy. His is perhaps a more eloquent version of one of my own quick catchphrase explanations of Flluxus… “Fluxus makes the mundane magical”. Of course, Emerson was speaking about Fluxus in 1837, more that a hundred years before Fluxus even formally existed!

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Fluxus dead or alive (again)

May 17, 2011 Allan Commentary, Fluxus History

The Fluxus dead or alive argument is simpler than many people on both sides make it out to be.

Fluxus was a group of artists in the 60s and 70s. The group largely disbanded after Maciunas died. Ergo Fluxus is dead.

BUT… That group of artists set an idea in motion. That idea (or attitude) is Fluxus. The Fluxus idea, attitude and way of being and artmaking is as relevant today as it was then. Ergo Fluxus lives.

I can see the attraction of the first statement for those whose primary objective is to profit from Fluxus, but  ss a living, breathing, Fluxus practioner, it seems pretty obvious to me thatthe second statement is more accurate.

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Exhibition: Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life

April 11, 2011 Allan Event Notice, Fluxus

Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life

April 16–August 7, 2011
Hanover, NH 03755
603.646.2808
hood.museum@dartmouth.edu
hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu

One of the things—maybe the most important thing—that art is good for is thinking about life. Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life, a major traveling exhibition based on the Hood Museum of Art’s George Maciunas Memorial Collection of Fluxus art, is designed for visitors to experience the radical and influential cultural development that was Fluxus, and maybe learn something about themselves along the way. Fluxus was an international network of artists, composers, and designers that emerged as an art (or “anti-art”) phenomenon in the early 1960s and was noted for blurring the boundaries between art and life.
Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life takes Maciunas’s approach toward art as part of a social process as it’s touchstone. The exhibition is about how Fluxus works, and it encourages visitor interpretation and response through its design and layout. Over one hundred works by Maciunas and other Fluxus artists, including, among many others, George Brecht, Ben Vautier, Yoko Ono, Robert Filliou, Nam June Paik, La Monte Young, Mieko Shiomi, and Ken Friedman, playfully supply answers to fourteen themes, framed as questions, such as “What Am I?,” “Happiness?,” “Health?,” “Freedom?,” and “Danger?” A free newspaper containing a map of the exhibition will allow visitors to go directly to those questions of most pressing interest to themselves.
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Fluxfest New York City: April 2011

April 3, 2011 allanr Event Notice, Fluxus

NYC Fluxfest 2011 Poster

One comment

What is Fluxus? What is not?

March 26, 2011 Allan Commentary, Fluxus

There have never been really solid lines demarking where Fluxus starts and stops.

To my mind there are some things that are clearly Fluxus and others that are clearly not Fluxus, but there is a heck of a lot of grey in between. For example, I am not currently aware of any pure audio art (sound art without a background event score or visible performers) that was made or exhibited during the first Fluxus era. But I think that sound art is the ultimate expression of Intermedia, and Intermedia is/was fundamental to understanding Fluxus.

The writing of event scores, performance of event scores, fluxboxes, fluxkits, and the type of work typically included in a fluxbox (visual poetry, experimental poetry, drawings and texts, small found objects and multiples) probably constituted the majority of work that could easily be classified as Fluxus. But even in the first Fluxus era, the scope of Intermedia and work presented as Fluxus by its practitioners extended beyond those forms.

In the era of the Internet the world of Intermedia has become the new normal. It seems only natural that the combination of technical media intersections and online social networking should lead to a renaissance of new Fluxus that while not the same as the old Fluxus, is never-the-less a natural extension of it. I believe that the group of artists that I am associated with is a natural extension of Fluxus, and that we are indeed a legitimate new Fluxus community.

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Fluxus has a new manifesto: What changes?

March 22, 2011 Allan Commentary, Fluxus, Fluxus History

Fluxus has a new manifesto, (FLUXUS MANIFESTO FOR THE 21st CENTURY). What does this change?

  1. The New Manifesto Changes nothing:
    George Maciuanas, Dick Higgins, and Ken Friedman did a very good job of defining Fluxus and describing what it is. Fluxus does not need anybody to do redo the excellent work already done in this regard. The Four Principles that I enumerated much later are NOT a new definition. I wrote them as a response to a need that I identified for a a quick and simple description of what Fluxus is, for those (frequent) occasions when people without previous experience or exposure to Fluxus request an explanation. I think that I succeeded, and that the four principles provide a reasonable explanation that should satisfy any casual inquiry, while still remaining true to the intentions of the more sophisticated explanations. If there is ever a conflict between one of the Four Principles and a historically or technically more accurate example, the historical truth must prevail.
  2. The New Manifesto Changes Everything:
    Contemporary Fluxus artists have thrown off the last yokes of dependency on the old generation of Fluxus insiders. The contemporary artists know that they are Fluxus artists and do not need to ask for permission or even opinions as to their status as Fluxus artists.Artists were doing Fluxus before Fluxus was even named. In the 1960s and 1970s a group of artists centered themselves around George Maciuanas and called themselves and their work Fluxus. After Maciuanas’s death some of these artists continued making Fluxus works and others dispersed or followed new ideas. Over the years new artists began working with Fluxus ideas and creating new Fluxus works. Some of the original Fluxus group thought this was exciting and interesting. Some of the original Fluxus group, along with parts of the commercial art market that dealt with Fluxus as commodities whose value was dependent on perceived scarcity, found this development threatening. The newer artists were confused by this schism as they attempted to assert their own identities as Fluxus artists while seeking the guidance and respect of the remaining original Fluxus artists.

    It became clear to the new Fluxus artists that certain parts of the old and established Fluxus community were never going to accept them as anything other than a group of child-like appendages whose role must be limited to the promotion and celebration only of the work done by themselves. This state of affairs was not acceptable to a group of autonomous artists who saw (and see) themselves as a continuation of Fluxus, not as a subsidiary appendage.

The Fluxus Manifesto for the 21st Century asserts that contemporary Fluxus artists are proud of their Fluxus heritage, are continuing to celebrate the work and achievements of the Fluxus artists who came before them, but are no longer dependent upon them for support or for opinions on their legitimacy or perceived lack thereof.

Fluxus lives and we are Fluxus!

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FLUXUS MANIFESTO FOR THE 21st CENTURY

March 21, 2011 Allan Artists, Fluxus, Fluxus History

FLUXUS MANIFESTO FOR THE 21st CENTURY
Allan Revich, March 21, 2011

Once again a subset of The Fluxus Establishment (as if there could be such a thing as a Fluxus establishment!) have got their knickers in knots about the idea of new artists calling themselves Fluxus and/or calling their activities Fluxus. This has happened before. It might happen again. But I doubt it.

Today’s Fluxus artists continue to respect the work and legacy of Fluxus 1.0, but we no longer feel that there is a requirement for acceptance by the remaining vestiges of that generation. It is no longer a matter of whether or not THEY accept US. The 21st Century Fluxboat has already left the dock. We would love to have the original group of Fluxus artists on board with us. In fact it would be an honor. But the boat is sailing, and it’s not going to wait at the dock any longer. Those who don’t jump on board will simply be left behind.

There are no more questions for the new Fluxus artists to answer. We ARE Fluxus. We welcome the support of those who preceded us, but we don’t need their approval. The only remaining question for those of the original generation of Fluxus is, “Do you want to be on the boat, or do you want to be left behind on the dock?” We have room for you. We will welcome you with open arms. We will give you all of the respect and admiration that you deserve. But we will not wait for you.

This is what Fluxus is today. It is pretty much the same as what Fluxus was, but the old actors have been replaced by new ones. And behind our generation Fluxus artists there is already a new generation ready to displace us. We welcome them.

FLUXUS TODAY:

Fluxus today is built on the solid foundations of Fluxus yesterday. The artists may be new, but the work they are making is as much a part of Fluxus tradition as the work that came before. Here is what Ken Friedman wrote in 2002. A version of his essay was first published in 1989 by the Emily Harvey Gallery as “Fluxus and Company”.

…Emmett Williams once wrote, “Fluxus is what Fluxus does – but no one knows whodunit.” This concise description makes two radical statements. The statement that no one knows “who done” Fluxus rejects the idea of Fluxus as a specific group of people. It identifies Fluxus with a frame of action and defines Fluxus as a cumulative, aggregate of Fluxus activities over the past forty years or so. While Emmett is famous for playful conundrums, he may not agree with this reading of his text. Dick Higgins did.

Dick explicitly rejected a notion that limited Fluxus to a specific group of people who came together at a specific time and place. Dick wrote, “Fluxus is not a moment in history, or an art movement. Fluxus is a way of doing things, a tradition, and a way of life and death.”

For Dick, for George Maciunas, and for me, Fluxus is more valuable as an idea and a potential for social change than as a specific group of people or a collection of objects.

We, the Fluxus artists of the 21st century have taken these words to heart. We are Fluxus and we are making Fluxus work. Friedman, building on previous work by Dick Higgins, described Fluxus as a “laboratory characterized by twelve ideas“.

  1. globalism,
  2. the unity of art and life,
  3. intermedia,
  4. experimentalism,
  5. chance,
  6. playfulness,
  7. simplicity,
  8. implicativeness,
  9. exemplativism,
  10. specificity,
  11. presence in time, and
  12. musicality

We live and work under the umbrella of these twelve ideas.

FOUR FLUXUS PRINCIPLES

I have used ideas from Friedman, Owen Smith, Maciuanas, and Higgins, along with direct observation of Fluxus work past and present, to create an even more concise set of Four Fluxus Principles:

  1. Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
  2. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
  3. Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
  4. Fluxus should be fun. Humor has always been an important element in Fluxus.

As with Friedman’s 12 ideas, my four principles are flexible guidelines, not commandments carved in stone. They are meant to help people understand and work with Fluxus, not to confine them or restrain their creativity.

We, the Fluxus artists of the 21st century, know that we owe George Maciunas, Dick Higgins, Ken Friedman, and all of the original Fluxus artists a debt of gratitude for building the ship that we are now sailing on. Anyone, anywhere, is welcome aboard. Just remember that the ship has already started to sail.

Allan Revich
March 21, 2011

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Who is a Fluxus Artist?

March 20, 2011 Allan Artists, Commentary

Fluxfest New York 2011 is coming soon to New York City. April 11 through April 17, 2011. Some venues have been secured, some are being negotiated, and one appears to have backed out. It’s hard for me to understand why a venue that has a strong history of supporting Fluxus would withdraw support from a Fluxfest, but from what I understand, this particular space was more comfortable hosting reproductions of old historical Fluxs works than in supporting the work of newer and emerging Fluxus artists. Why would this be?

As new artists see the possibilities of working within the Fluxus milieu there has been an incredible renaissance of Fluxus works and performances. New scores are being written. New artworks and texts are being created, and new artists are celebrating the accomplishments and legacies of the earlier generation of Fluxus artists. Many people who have been associated with Fluxus over the last 50 years have shown themselves to be very excited about the new Fluxus awakening. Artists and works that were on the verge of fading into oblivion are suddenly in the forefront of consciousness of the arts community. Apparently the new Fluxus phenomenon is not universally being welcomed by all though. Is Fluxus dead or is it alive? Was it a movement, and idea, or is it an attitude? Who were the Fluxus artists? Who can claim to be a Fluxus artist?

I think that there are two basic and long-standing definitions of what Fluxus is, and that is what complicates answering the question, “who is a Fluxus artist?”

1) The Silverman Collection Fluxus: Fluxus as defined by collectors, and historians with powerful vested interests in confining Fluxus to specific times and places. They prefer a tight and tidy definition, generally around the idea that Fluxus began with George Maciuanas, and it ended when he died. George died died, the circle dispersed. Fluxus ended.

2) The “Fluxus Attitude” as decribed by Owen Smith, and the Fluxus Idea as described by Dick Higgins and Ken Friedman:  Dick and Ken collaborated on the 12 Fluxus ideas. In fact, these are Ken’s own words,

Dick explicitly rejected a notion that limited Fluxus to a specific group of people who came together at a specific time and place. Dick wrote, “Fluxus is not a moment in history, or an art movement. Fluxus is a way of doing things, a tradition, and a way of life and death.”

For Dick, for George Maciunas, and for me, Fluxus is more valuable as an idea and a potential for social change than as a specific group of people or a collection of objects.

As I see it, Fluxus was a laboratory. The research program of the Fluxus laboratory is characterized by twelve ideas:globalism,

  1. the unity of art and life,
  2. intermedia,
  3. experimentalism,
  4. chance,
  5. playfulness,
  6. simplicity,
  7. implicativeness,
  8. exemplativism,
  9. specificity,
  10. presence in time, and
  11. musicality.

My own 4 point summary is derived from a combination of this idea and of Owen Smith’s idea of Fluxus as an Attitude, along with examples of the actual work produced and held out to be Fluxus work by Fluxus artists, to wit:

  1. Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
  2. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.
  3. Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
  4. Fluxus should be fun. Humor has always been an important element in Fluxus.

I’ll leave this post with a few more words from Forty Years of Fluxus:

“…The first Fluxus disappeared a long time ago. It replaced itself with the many forms of Fluxus that came after.

The many varieties of Fluxus activity took on their own life and had a significant history of their own. It’s unrealistic and historically inaccurate to imagine a Fluxus controlled by one man. Fluxus was co-created by many people and it has undergone a continuous process of co-creation and renewal for three decades.”

And, so it goes. Fluxus ended for one group of artists and continues forward in the capable and spirited hands new generations of Fluxus artists.

Hello, my name is Allan Revich, and I am a Fluxus Artist.

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The Fluxus Community Today ©-Cecil Touchon

February 15, 2011 Allan Commentary, Fluxus

Fluxus, since many people still have never even heard of it, continues to have the ability to surprise. But the advantage is, most people have been influenced by the ideas or have experienced Fluxus even though they don’t realize it. There is more subconscious precedent in the back of people’s minds today than there used to be in the past which provides resonance and people have the ability to connect with it even if they are not sure why. So there is often an almost guilty recognition among some that they ‘love this kind of stuff’ even if there is something of a disconnect. For artists this disconnect comes from the belief that Fluxus is a historical event – a closed circle – that is long over and do not realize that it continues to live and grow through the present generation of practitioners and that they could be a part of it in the present if they feel the connection.

Regardless of what Fluxus ever was or is now or shall be in the future, it is first and foremost a community of people who communicate and work with each other in the context of Fluxus – of Fluxus as an attitude, as a tradition, as a trajectory, as a point of view. Fluxus has always been experimental and has always challenged boundaries – famously, the boundaries between high and low art or the boundaries between one medium and another and ultimately the perceived boundaries between art and life.

Therefore, it should be no surprise that Fluxus artists do not recognize any boundary between the past and the present or between insiders and outsiders. The Fluxus community today is a self organizing, porous organization. Membership in this community is based on interacting with other members of the community and participating in group projects. The more one participates, the more of a core member one becomes. It is that simple. It is a matter of interconnectedness. That is what makes any community.

If virtually anyone could become a part of the Fluxus community, and anyone can, then the question might then arise, “But is what all of these people are doing really Fluxus?” That seems like a good question. It could be suggested that the recognition of what is Fluxus would need to emerge from the activities of the members of this community and the ensuing dialog around those activities. As a group dedicated to Fluxus, it is inevitable that certain things will come to be regarded as Fluxus and many other things will not. It is really a matter of consensus within the group. If the group remains open and experimental then what is Fluxus amid what they are doing will be recognized and favored as such – everything else will not be. Since Fluxus is open by nature, new ideas can and will emerge, these new ideas will find their way into the canon of Fluxus if they are in accord with the general nature of Fluxus as accepted by the community thus allowing for change and transformation which are, in themselves inherently Fluxus.

During the founder’s time, George Maciunas was the ‘chairman’, the man in charge of deciding what was Fluxus and what wasn’t and he often changed his mind. In his absence, the Fluxus community is not restricted by the limitations of a single individual’s vision. As an experimental idea Fluxus at its core, is democratic by nature rather than hierarchical. When looking at the definition for hierarchy there is a relevant quote: “it has been said that only a hierarchical society with a leisure class at the top can produce works of art”. It could be said that Fluxus challenges that view in that works of art can be made by anyone in any society depending on how one defines what constitutes works of art.

In Fluxus, power is no longer invested in a single individual or small group of insiders deciding what or who is or isn’t Fluxus. The power is, rather, invested in the community. Each individual in the community is in charge of his own domain and responsible for his own place in the network without approval from any ‘superior’. This is cleverly alluded to in a recent work by Keith Buchholz who, using a well known Maciunas work: NO SMOKING, removed the ‘S’ making a new work: NO MO KING meaning ‘no more king’.

Fluxus today, equipped with the examples set by Maciunas and the other seminal members, has the capacity to grow and expand according to the ‘Laws of Fluxus’ established through precedence rather than the decrees and judgments of an individual authority. Are you a member of the Fluxus community? You ought to be.

Cecil Touchon, Director
The Ontological Museum

http://ontologicalmuseum.org

Copyright © 2011 Cecil Touchon
reposted with permission

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FLUXFEST CHICAGO Flux-Reminder (Next Week)

February 7, 2011 Allan Event Notice, Fluxus History

FLUXFEST CHICAGO Organized by Keith A. Buchholz and Picasso Gaglione. PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE -
MCA – Chicago, week of Feb. 15th – 20th, 2011.
A week long exploration of Fluxus activity, from it’s earliest scores and actions,
to Contemporary re-interpretations of classic scores, and Recent works by
Contemporary Fluxus Artists.

Tuesday, 2/15 12:31 P.M.
The New Fake Picabia Brothers Picasso Gaglione / Keith A. Buchholz
Guitar Kick ( Robin Page ) Performers kick a guitar throughout galleries, until guitar is completely dismembered. – Classic performance score by an anchor artist of 70′s Fluxus, group performance led by Picasso Gaglione and Keith A. Buchholz.

Tuesday, 2/15 6: 35 P.M.
The Chicago Fluxus Ensemble – Classic Scores and Interventions
Founded in 2009 by Hannah Higgins, Simon Anderson and Alison Knowles, The Chicago Fluxus Ensemble has performed multiple times with Fulcrum Point’s New Music Series. ( Simon Anderson, Picasso Gaglione, Jeff Abell, Sally Alatalo, Keith A. Buchholz, Joshua Rutherford, Jessica Feinstein, Kyle White, Darlene Domel , and others. ) * Direction by Simon Anderson.

Wednesday, 2/16 12:03 p.m.
” Eternal Networking ”
Guided by artists Picasso Gaglione, Darlene Domel, Keith A. Buchholz, Andy Oleksiuk, Adamandia Kapsalis, Neosho, and others, Visitors will have the ability to interact with the Postal Art Network.
Supplies for Collage, Stamping, and Postal Mail Making will be provided, along with insights, and guidance into making works which will be sent into the “Eternal Network”. * Postage sponsored by the Chicago Philatelic Society.

Thursday, 2/17 12:15 p.m.
Durational Works
1. Plastic Oh-No Band , 4″33 -
Allan Revich The dean of Canadian Fluxus proposes a new work which incorporates homages to both Cage and Ono. Duration : 10 Minutes

2. Premiere of ” Time / Space Ritual ” a New work by Keith A. Buchholz, involving the layering of sound and manipulation of found sources through 4 turntables, influenced by Nam June Paik’s Turntable manipulations and Steve Reich’s Tape Loop work. Duration : 60 Min
3. Premiere of ” Magic Mushrooms” a New work by Andrew Oleksiuk, Utilizing Live telepresence, Virtual FLUXUS Performance in Second Life, with special guest performers. Duration 60 min
4. Two Works in Second Life – Patrick Lichty Car Bibbe 2 – Al Hansen, Second Front *Directed by Patrick Lichty Duration 7:50 min
Some Virtual Fluxus – Patrick Lichty, Larry Miller, Bibbe Hansen, Liz Solo, yael Gilks Duration 25:20 min
5. ” STEPS” – Reid Wood
Using a floor plan of the MCA, Wood will walk through all public spaces of the museum. ( Audience may follow) Duration 15 min
6. “Jungflux Finger Storàge Box for Ay-O” – Mark Bloch Premier of a new work.
(This will be a 15 minute window into an otherwise undetectable longer duration piece performed 2/15 to 2/20 and will take the form of a short lecture with props.
7. Gregory Fitzsimmons – Merzwalk
A Coordinated walk moving outside the museum, and through public space. Participants will be urged to find objects and document their experience. Duration 30 min
8. Dragging Suite – Nam June Paik
Performed by an Open Group of FLUXERS, Paik’s Suite calls for the dragging of multiple dolls throughout the space. Comical and Irreverent, this is a Paik work not often seen. Duration 30 – 45min

Friday, 2/18 12:36 p.m.

TZARA IN OBLIVION – mIEKAL aND , Camille Bacos. Duration 30 Min Video, Sound, and live performance exploring the legacy of Tristin Tzara in his home country.
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO FLUXFILM – Jean Kusina Duration 10 min
Artist and Historian Kusina leads us into the world of Fluxus Films .
NO PARKING – Tulio Restrepo Duration 15 Min. Performance footage documenting guerrilla performances in the streets of Medellin, Columbia.
SHORT FILMS – “The Kinsinas” Duration 7 -10 Min Experimental Filmmakers the Kinsinas ( aka Jean Kusina and Tammy Kinsey) present new work being made for the festival.
REVISITING CHOPIN – Matthew Lee Knowles Duration 3 Min.
London based artist / musician Knowles cuts up and re-assembles a Chopin Score.

TRAVEL FLUX – Keith A. Buchholz Duration 2 Min
Filmed in Chicago’s Union Station in 2009, this Fluxfilm explores the day to day routine of the daily commute.

BROKEN Resealed and Remembered – Julian Grant. Duration 4 Min.
Chicago filmmaker Julian Grant presents a short film overview of his works in Mail Art.

FLUXUS PERFORMANCE : FLYING MAIL – Litsa Spathi Duration 3 Min. Spathi, a director of Fluxus Heidelberg, documents a found performance in this Fluxfilm .

THE CHESTNUT PERFORMANCE – Ruud Janssen / Litsa Spathi Duration 2min
Fluxus Heidelberg short film of performance with chestnuts found in Ziegelhausen.

DADA machine FLUXUS Duration 60 – 90 Min.
Manic Re – Interpretations of Classic Fluxus Scores, as seen through the direction of Picasso Gaglione. (Picasso Gaglione, Darlene Domel, Keith A. Buchholz, Andy Oleksiuk, Adamandia Kapsalis, and others.) * Expected guest performers include Melissa McCarthy (Flux- New Hampshire), Reed Altemus ( Fluxus Maine), Jennifer Kosharek ( Fluxus South), Cecil Touchon ( Flux-Texas), Allan Revich (Fluxus Toronto ), as well as other incoming Flux-Folk.

Saturday, 2/19 12:34 p.m.
BE BLANK CONSORT Duration 45 Min.
Formed in 2001 during a residency assembled by critic Richard Kostelanetz, Be Blank Consort is an experimental poetry ensemble that writes, scores, and performs avant garde textual arrangements.

FLUXHIBITION # 4A
A selection of small works from the holdings of the FluxMuseum, Ft. Worth, Tx. Will be shown in and around their carrying valise, and may be handled, and explored by visitors. Cecil Touchon, Director of the FluxMuseum will guide visitors through the objects. ( a rare opportunity to handle and explore Fluxus multiples, as they will arrive and depart with their guardian.)

FLUXUS NOW !!!
Contemporary Fluxus Scores interpreted by their authors and members of their circle. A sampling of recent work, performed by contemporary artists from the Fluxus community, many of whom are coming to Chicago specifically to perform at these events. Artists from throughout the U.S., (and Mexico and Canada as well), will converge to perform their recent scores.

* A commemorative Zine of scores will be published by FLUXPRESS in conjunction with this event, and will be distributed free to MCA visitors during these performances.

Saturday, 2/19 7:13 p.m. ( OFFSITE )
The New York Correspondance School of Chicago Dinner
In Keeping with the traditions of Ray Johnson’s New York Correspondance School, it’s Chicago Affiliates will host an informal dinner gathering at FEED, 2803 W. Chicago Ave. one of the more creative restaurants in the Ukranian Village neighborhood. Members of the Chicago Fluxus and Mail Art communities as well as incoming performers and guests will be in attendance. The public will be notified of time and place, by flyers distributed throughout the week at the MCA.

Saturday, 2/19 9:30 p.m. (OFFSITE)
Reed Altemus – Artistamps and Stamp Imprints
The Stamp Art Gallery, 2708 W. Chicago ave. hosts a Post Dinner Opening for a new show of stamp work by Reed Altemus ( Fluxus Maine).

Sunday, 2/20 12:33 p.m.
FLUX – SOLOS
A variety of Classic and Contemporary Fluxus scores, interpreted by Contemporary Fluxus artists.
This performance gives Contemporary performers the opportunity to present works from the 50 year canon of scores, that personally resonate with them. Performances will undoubtedly be insightful, and will run the gamut from irreverent to introspective. ( discussion with the artists to follow. ) Artists will include all involved during the “Fluxweek” and will conclude the weeks activities.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR PERFORMERS :
* As part of the weeks activities, Posters, Flyers, Stampsheets, and Booklets will be printed and distributed freely to visitors at the museum. ( Ephemera is an integral part of the Fluxus practice).
***** Please bring Some type of multiple, in an edition of 100 or so ……. Scoresheets, Flyers, Booklets, Stampsheets, Media, Emphemera, cards, objects, etc to be given away during the week from our info table.
MEETUP TIMES :
*****We will meet at the museum lobby at 11:00 A.M. each day to Finalize the lineup for the day’s performances. Please be prompt, as we will be printing the daily program based on who shows up, and in what order they will perform. All performances are open to everyone participating.
“COSTUME” CONSIDERATIONS :
If you are planning to perform with the Chicago Fluxus Ensemble, or DADA machine FLUXUS, Please wear BLACK, and bring a Bowler Hat if you have one ( we will provide as many as we can ), also wear flat shoes, as we will be “Shuffling” as part of the performance.
HOTEL INFORMATION :
THE HOTEL SENECA is a partner hotel to the MCA and has graciously given us a special room rate of $99.00 per night. They are located 1 block north of the museum, in the heart of downtown Chicago. All rooms have kitchenettes, and it’s a beautiful hotel. Please call Reservation Manager Mike Foster direct to book your room. 312-988-4400 ( I spoke with him yesterday, and he’s handling our group. Just tell him Fluxus, and MCA. )
BUS SERVICE :
The # 66 Westbound bus picks up at the corner of E. Chicago Avenue, ( at the museum ) and is a direct route to the restaurant and Stamp Art Gallery. Fare is $2.25 each way.

PARTICIPATING ARTIST LIST ( so far ) : Picasso Gaglione, Darlene Domel, Keith A. Buchholz, Adamandia Kapsalis, Jeff Abell, Simon Anderson, Sally Alatalo, James Scalfani, John M. Bennett, C. Mehrl Bennett, Neosho, Jennifer Kosharek, Bibiana Padilla Maltos, Joshua Rutherford, Jessica Feinstein, Kyle White, Scott Helmes, Michael Peters, mIEKAL aND, Camille Bacos, Bibbe Hansen, Ginny Lloyd, Tom Cassidy, Joel Lipman, Allan Revich, Melissa McCarthy, Reid Wood, Jennifer Kosharek, Vivian Vassar, Don Boyd, Julie Jeffries, Cecil Touchon, Andy Oleksiuk, Patrick Lichty, Tulio Restrepo, Mark Bloch (Fluxpan), Seamas Cain, Gregory Fitzsimmons, Mary Campbell, Tammy Kinsey, Matthew Lee Knowles, Ruud Janssen, Litsa Spathi, Larry Miller, Jean Kusina, Shiela Murphy, K.S. Ernst, Carol Starr, Julian Grant, Michael Harford, and others to be added …

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Fluxus in Texas: January 7, 2011

December 19, 2010 allanr Event Notice, Fluxus

Fluxus in Texas One Night Only

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Fluxfest – Chicago 2011

December 14, 2010 Allan Event Notice, Fluxus
Please Join us to Perform and Congregate : at the MCA – Chicago, week of Feb. 15th – 20th, 2011.

organized by Keith A. Buchholz and Picasso Gaglione.
A weeklong exploration of Fluxus activity, from it’s earliest scores and actions, to contemporary re-interpretations of classic scores, and Recent works by Contemporary Fluxus Artists.
Held inside the Museum of Contemporary Art – Chicago, Illinois
February 15th – 20th, 2010

Tuesday, 2/15 12:31 P.M.
The New Fake Picabia Brothers ( Picasso Gaglione / Keith A. Buchholz )
Guitar Kick ( Robin Page ) Performers kick a guitar throughout galleries, until guitar is completely dismembered. – Classic performance score by an anchor artist of the british “school” of 70’s Fluxus.

Tuesday, 2/15 6: 35 P.M.
The Chicago Fluxus Ensemble – Classic Scores and Interventions
Founded in 2009 by Hannah Higgins, Simon Anderson and Alison Knowles, The Chicago Fluxus Ensemble has performed multiple times with Fulcrum Point’s New Music Series. ( Simon Anderson, Picasso Gaglione, Jeff Abell, Sally Alatelo, Keith A. Buchholz, Joshua Rutherford, Jessica Feinstein, Kyle White, Darlene Domel , and others. )

Wednesday, 2/16 12:03 p.m.
“ Eternal Networking “
Guided by artists Picasso Gaglione, Darlene Domel, Keith A. Buchholz, Andy Oleksiuk, Adamandia Kapsalis, Neosho, and others, Visitors will have the ability to interact with the Postal Art Network. Supplies for Collage, Stamping, and Postal Mail Making will be provided, along with insights, and guidance into making works which will be sent into the “Eternal Network “.

Thursday, 2/17 12:15 p.m.
3 Durational Works
1. Premiere of “ Time / Space Ritual “ a New work by Keith A. Buchholz, involving the layering of sound and manipulation of found sources through 4 turntables, influenced by Nam June Paik’s Turntable manipulations and Steve Reich’s Tape Loop work. Duration : 60 Minutes.
2. Premiere of “ Magic Mushrooms” a New work by Andrew Oleksiuk, Utilizing Live telepresence, Virtual FLUXUS Performance in Second Life, with special guest performers. Duration 60 minutes.
3. Dragging Suite – Nam June Paik Performed by Picasso Gaglione, Darlene Domel, Keith A. Buchholz, Allan Revich and others, Paik’s Suite calls for the dragging of multiple dolls throughout the space. Comical and Irreverent, this is a Paik work not often seen. Duration 45min – 1 hr.

Friday, 2/18 12:36 p.m.
TRISTIN TZARA – performance by Miekal And, Camille Bacos .
Explores the relationship of Tzara to his hometown, with filmed imagery, and spoken word.

DADA machine FLUXUS ( Darlene Domel, Keith A. Buchholz, Picasso Gaglione, Andy Oleksiuk, and others.)
* Expected guest performers include Melissa McCarthy (Flux- New Hampshire), Reed Altemus ( Fluxus Maine), Jennifer Kosharek ( Fluxus South), Cecil Touchon ( Fluxus-Texas), Allan Revich (Fluxus Canada) as well as other incoming Flux-Folk.
Manic Re – Interpretations of Classic Fluxus Scores, as seen through the direction of Picasso Gaglione.

Saturday, 2/19 12:34 p.m.
FLUXUS NOW !!!
Contemporary Fluxus Scores interpreted by their authors and members of their circle.
A sampling of recent work, performed by contemporary artists from the Fluxus community, many of whom are coming to Chicago specifically to perform at these events. Artists from throughout the U.S.and Canada (and possibly Mexico as well), will converge to perform their recent scores.
* A commemorative Zine of scores will be published by Fluxpress in conjunction with this event, and will be distributed free to MCA visitors during these performances.

Saturday, 2/19 7:13 p.m. ( OFFSITE )
The New York Correspondance School of Chicago Dinner
In Keeping with the traditions of Ray Johnson’s New York Correspondance School, it’s Chicago Affiliates will host an informal dinner gathering at a downtown location TBA. Members of the Chicago Fluxus and Mail Art communities as well as incoming performers and guests will be in attendance. The public will be notified of time and place, by flyers distributed throughout the week at the MCA.

Sunday, 2/20 12:33 p.m.
FLUX – SOLOS
A variety of Classic and Contemporary Fluxus scores, interpreted by Contemporary Fluxus artists.
This performance gives Contemporary performers the opportunity to present works from the 50 year canon of scores, that personally resonate with them. Performances will undoubtedly be insightful, and will run the gamut from irreverent to introspective. ( discussion with the artists to follow. )
* artists will include all involved during the “Fluxweek” and will conclude the weeks activities.

* As part of the weeks activities, Posters, Flyers, Stampsheets, and Booklets will be printed and distributed freely to visitors at the museum. ( Ephemera is an integral part of the Fluxus practice).
More Performances to be added —- As you think of them …..

Please contact Keith Buchholz for more info : 1-314-276-4802 Keith9963@sbcglobal.net

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Anonymous Drawings: The Archive Show

December 3, 2010 Allan Event Notice

The ARCHIVE OF ANONYMOUS DRAWINGS will be shown for 10 days at Uferhallen, Berlin-Wedding.

This year the exhibition is the opportunity for a BENEFIT-SALE of drawings from the archive: The proceeds of the sales will be collected in the blütenweiss-fund and will be used for the financing of the next call for participation and the following exhibition in June 2011.

800 selected drawings of international artists will be presented anonymously in an exhibition. The artist’s anonymity can be lifted by means of purchasing a drawing for the symbolic unit sales-price of 150 EUR. The buyer can take his drawing right off the wall and s/he is then told the name and the point of origin of its author. The empty space the drawing leaves behind will be marked with the artist’s full name. The given unit sales-price should not be seen as a real market price, but as a place-holder for any conceivable amount of money.

http://storefrontwindows.blogspot.com/2010/12/anonymous-drawings-archive-show.html

ANONYMOUS DRAWINGS / ARCHIVE
EXHIBITION AND BENEFIT-SALE
December 10 – 19 / 2010
Opening: 7 pm Thursday, December 9 / 2010

UFERHALLEN
Uferstrasse 8 – 12
13357 Berlin – Wedding
Opening hours: daily 12 – 8 pm
U8 Pankstrasse  Map

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Fluxus in Practical Terms

September 28, 2010 Allan Commentary, Fluxus

The Fluxus Blog has examined Fluxus in historical and theoretical terms. I have posited that Fluxus “happens when one feels that life and art must be taken so seriously, that it becomes impossible to take life or art seriously.” I have also previously posted several other ideas, theories, and views about Fluxus. But how would “you know it when you see it”? What characteristics of an artwork serve to identify the work as belonging to or related to Fluxus?

Historically many artists working in different media have related their work to Fluxus. However, there are really only two types of work that are nearly always related to Fluxus. They are “Event Scores” and “Fluxkits”.

Event Scores:
Event scores are similar to short musical scores or theatrical setting descriptions. Some are designed to be performed, and some are written to be read and imagined without ever actually being performed. Of those that are written to be performed, some may be designed to be performed only once and recorded (through written, photo, or video) documentation, while others are written so that they can be performed repaeatedly. Fluxus associated artists who have made extensive use of event scores in their work include Yoko Ono and George Brecht. The musical compositions of John Cage and the “Happenings” of Allan Kaprow are also closely related to Fluxus event scores.

Fluxkits:
Fluxkits, also sometimes call Fluxboxes are smallish (usually no larger than a shoebox or briefcase) objects that are collections of other objects that hold meaning to the artist and can be interacted with by the audience. Fluxkits have been produced as multiples in editions, and as unique, one-of-a-kind objects. Interactivity can consist of examination of the contents, rearrangement of the objects, or games in which the rules often resemble event scores. Artists who have received attention in the art-oriented mass media for their fluxkits and fluxboxes include George Maciunas (who coined the word “Fluxus”), Ay-O, and George Brecht. The first Fluxkits probably resulted from fresh interpretations of the work of dada artist, Marcel Duchamp, and have continued to influence present day Fluxus and mail artists.

Fluxus as Intermedia:
A third indicator of Fluxus relatedness is the concept of “intermedia”. Fluxus artists and historians have sometimes used the terms Fluxus and intermedia almost interchangeably. The important Fluxus artist, Dick Higgins, described Intermedia as a myriad of emerging genres that spilled across the boundaries of traditional media. In the interseces between the arts, mixed-media forms coalesced: Happenings, performance art, kinetic sculpture, and electronic theater (Higgins). Higgins suggests that Fluxus artists explore the territory that lies between art media and life media. The difficulty in using intermedia as a determinant to identifying a particular artists or artwork as Fluxus is that it is not easy to identify what kind of objects exist in “the territory between art media and life media”. However, performance art, video art, installation art, mail art, and time-based artworks are closely related to Fluxus even if not identified as such by either the artist or art critics.

It is safe to say that any work that closely resembles an Event Score or a Fluxkit/Fluxbox, is either Fluxus or is closely related to Fluxus. But Fluxus isn’t quite that simple. While Event Scores and Fluxkits are Fluxus, so are many other types of artwork. If a work is not an event score or a fluxkit, it can not be automatically implied that the work is not Fluxus. While the historical- theoretical core of Fluxus remains the strongest determinant to linking work to Fluxus, many Fluxus artists would argue that the only determinant of Fluxus “authenticity” is the artists “say-so”.

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15 Artistic Influences

September 14, 2010 Allan Artists, Commentary

As the result of a Facebook Challenge…

15 “artists” that had some influence upon me:

per Jen Bradford‘s Rules – Monday, September 13, 2010 at 11:36am]

The Rules:  Don’t take too long to think about it.  Fifteen Artists who’ve influenced you and that will ALWAYS STICK WITH YOU.  List the first fifteen you can recall in to more than fifteen minutes.  Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I’m interested in seeing what artists my friends choose.  (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.) Quickly, and in no particular order…

 

  1. John Cage
  2. Yoko Ono
  3. Pablo Picasso
  4. Ken Friedman
  5. George Maciunas
  6. Marcel Duchamp
  7. Leonard Cohen
  8. Vincent Van Gogh
  9. Monet
  10. John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten)
  11. Andy Warhol
  12. Allen Ginsberg
  13. Charles Bukowski
  14. Basho
  15. Jean Baudrillardï
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Reed Altemus and Frank Turek in Portland, Maine

September 6, 2010 Allan Artists, Event Notice

Gamesmanship: New Works by Reed Altemus & Frank Turek

Saturday, 18 September 2010 at 17:00
Front Room Gallery

As active as the Portland art scene is, rare is the appearance of ‘new media’. Any Portland artist straying from the Painting-Sculpture- Photography trinity will usually get attention simply for doing something ‘different’.

Two Portland artists, Reed Altemus (digital prints) and Frank Turek (boxed assemblages) have been doing something ‘different’ for more than a decade. These artists have dedicated their artistic talents to their respective marginalized media and in the process they have garnered a local and national following.

Their media may be worlds apart, but Altemus and Turek share some basic philosophies of art’s role in contemporary society. These ideas form the foundation for their joint collaboration: a game board. The Fluxus  Board Game came out of Turek’s career long desire to design a board game and Altemus participation in Fluxus, an art movement which brings many game concepts into the world of art. This game board will be set up as a playable interactive part of the exhibit.

Featured among Turek’s work for this show will be his 4 Sonnets. Each piece is a visual representation of the strict classical poetic form., the Sonnet. The sonnet form is a 14 line poem with a specific  rhyming scheme and rhythmic structure.

Turek’s box assemblage enclosures echo this scheme visually, with paired images acting as rhymed couplets and the sections of the box’s structure acting as the 14 lines.

Art in a ‘self-contained world’

Frank Turek’s ubu studio

ubu studio photostream

Reed Altemus Tonerworks

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Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (United States)

September 5, 2010 Allan Commentary

The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), 17 U.S.C. § 106A, is a United States law protecting artist rights.

VARA was the first federal copyright legislation to grant protection to moral rights. Under VARA, works of art that meet certain requirements afford their authors additional rights in the works, regardless of any subsequent physical ownership of the work itself, or regardless of who holds the copyright to the work. For instance, a painter may insist on proper attribution of his painting and in some instances may sue the owner of the physical painting for destroying the painting even if the owner of the painting lawfully owned it.

While federal law had not acknowledged moral rights prior to this act, some state legislatures and judicial decisions created limited moral rights protection. The Berne Convention required protection of these rights by signatory states, and it was in response that the U.S. Congress passed the VARA.

VARA exclusively grants authors of works that fall under the protection of the Act the following rights

  • right to claim authorship
  • right to prevent the use of one’s name on any work the author did not create
  • right to prevent use of one’s name on any work that has been distorted, mutilated, or modified in a way that would be prejudicial to the author’s honor or reputation
  • right to prevent distortion, mutilation, or modification that would prejudice the author’s honor or reputation

Additionally, authors of works of “recognized stature” may prohibit intentional or grossly negligent destruction of a work. Exceptions to VARA require a waiver from the author in writing. To date, “recognized stature” has managed to elude a precise definition. VARA allows authors to waive their rights, something generally not permitted in France and many European countries whose laws were the originators of the moral rights of artists concept. [1]

In most instances, the rights granted under VARA persist for the life of the author (or the last surviving author, for creators of joint works).
Covered works
VARA provides its protection only to paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, still photographic images produced for exhibition only, and existing in single copies or in limited editions of 200 or fewer copies, signed and numbered by the artist. The requirements for protection do not implicate aesthetic taste or value.

Full Article on Wikipedia

Link to US Legal Code

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Two Questions from Mark Bloch

August 3, 2010 Allan Artists, Commentary

My friend and colleague, Mark Bloch, has posited two very interesting questions, which I am reposting here. Answers are more than welcome, and can be posted here in the Fluxus Blog “comments” field, or sent directly to Mark.

I am seeking comments on these two ideas:

1) When Alison Knowles spoke at CUNY earlier this year she insinuated or even just said that Dada and Fluxus don’t have much in common. I found that really interesting giving the fact that mail art claims both Dada and Fluxus as its precursors…. But the more I thought about it, she is right. perhaps Fluxus is about precision and Dada is about chaos and the two don’t go together. Maybe Fluxus uses precision to create the unpredictable, experiential situations that Dada seeked to create directly at its core. Perhaps that is where they meet?

2) Maybe this would be a good place to discuss Jung Fluxus this concept I came up with which opens up an idea of artistic myth making as an adjunct to the traditional Fluxus program. I say that the John and Yoko myth and the Josef Beuys myth a…nd the George Maciunas as Pope myth and maybe even the Geoff Hendricks sky myth or…(fill in blank) are personal narratives performing art functions that really fall outside the realm of traditional, historical Fluxus but they are done by Fluxus artists. I personally (it’s about the personal) am interested in this type of work and so always found Fluxus limiting in that way if it is to exclude such expressions. When (artists) make art about Kali or any of us return to traditional image creation or picture making, we are clearly outside the Fluxrealm. What does it mean that this ancient function of art continues to exist even in a post-concrete world?

Mark Block http://www.panmodern.com/

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