Archive for Fluxus
FLUXFEST CHICAGO – FEB 21 -24 – IT’S HAPPENING!
IT’S HAPPENING
FLUXFEST CHICAGO
FEB 21 -24
Feb 21 – Thurs evening
Mail Art Exhibit
School of the Art Institute Library
Wabash Ave
Feb 22 -Friday
Performances @ The Defibulator
12-5
Feb 23 Saturday
Chicago Cultural Center
Michigan Ave between Washington & Randolph St
Performances
Mail Art 0- Film Fest
12-5
6PM Dinner at The Berghoff
Feb 24 Sunday
6018 Gallery
6018 N Kenmore
Mail Art Exhibit and Final Get together
Start making your plans for the works you want to perform
notify your friends and family and enemies
FLUXFEST CHICAGO IS HAPPENING!!!
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Call for ReSite Submissions, get in the next issue!
ReSite is an assembling publication where pages have an element of audience participation or interaction. ReSite is part of the tradition of Fluxus editions where anyone can perform a Fluxus action or score. In addition to this performance-based approach, ReSite taps into the rich tradition of the avant-garde with contributions of manifestos and documentation of art actions.
Send 40 copies size 21cm x14.8cm (A5). Please leave 2cms on the left hand side for binding. Works can be double sided and can be more than one page. Copies should be flat and landscape format. Pages will be wire-bound. ReSite is an on going project. Each issue holds 20 contributions. Copy sent to all.
Send to: Field Study, P0 Box 1838 Geelong, VIC 3220 Australia
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Ay-O: Over the Rainbow Once More
Museum of Contemporary
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| 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: Organized by: Exhibition Catalogue: Press Contact: Reiko Noguchi |
Fluxfest Chicago 2012 – Poster and Schedule
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
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 …
- Mailart Creation Station – an ongoing space with supplies for making and sending Mailart, informing and interacting with the public.
- 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.
- 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 ) ….
- 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 - 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.
- 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.
What is Fluxus? What is not?
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.
Fluxus Weekend in NYC (November 11, 2011)
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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Exhibition: Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life
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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What is Fluxus? What is not?
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?
Fluxus has a new manifesto, (FLUXUS MANIFESTO FOR THE 21st CENTURY). What does this change?
- 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. - 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
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“.
- globalism,
- the unity of art and life,
- intermedia,
- experimentalism,
- chance,
- playfulness,
- simplicity,
- implicativeness,
- exemplativism,
- specificity,
- presence in time, and
- 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:
- Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style.
- 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.
- Fluxus works are simple. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.
- 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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The Fluxus Community Today ©-Cecil Touchon
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 2011
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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Fluxus in Practical Terms
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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Fluxus and Flippancy
Over the past few days I’ve been reading some comments that were critical of the “flippancy” observed in discussions about Fluxus and on sites like Facebook and online communities like the Fluxlist. Some of this criticism has even come from Fluxus and avant-garde old-timers. I find this criticism to be, how can I say this politely… precious.
Humor and “flippancy” are as much a part of Fluxus as Fluxkits and Event Scores. It is absurd to even use the term “flippant” in a critical manner when talking about Fluxus! After all, if it isn’t fun it isn’t Fluxus. Fluxus uses playfulness to deal with serious matters. Just as many of the most biting social critics have been comic entertainers, Fluxus upends seriousness – or refelcts it back – in the form of jokes. It isn’t always about you see in front of you… it’s about how you perceive what’s in front of you. Fluxus uses flippance to play with perception, in the dame way that Fluxus uses the idea of Intermedia to explore the intersections between media, to explore/investigate sensory perceptions.
Fluxus (past and present) has always incorporated humor, flippancy and good-natured irreverency. It is hard for me to imagine work more irreverent than:
- Throwing a piano off the roof a multistory building (Al Hansen’s Piano Drop)
- Nailing down the keys of a piano (Piano Piece #13 for Nam June Paik, by George Maciunas)
- Placing an eaten apple on a pedestal and watching it rot (Yoko Ono’s “Apple”)
- Playing with butterand eggs (Dick Higgins Danger Music #15 for the Dance)
For a really wonderful look at “classical” Fluxus performances, with many examples of humorous irrevence (i.e. flippancy) check out the Fluxus Performance Workbook on Scribd.
It is difficult for me to even imagine a Fluxus without flippancy! So, to every artists with a working sense of humor and in interest in Fluxus… FLUX ON!
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Fluxus and Photography
It sometimes seems to me that photography has been the forgotten child of Fluxus over the years. I suppose it is not hard to understand why… there has not been a lot of photographic work that has been identified as being explicitly “Fluxus”. Unlike video, which lemds itself so readily to Fluxus interpretations, the lines between Intermedia and multimedia are ill-defined and lurry at best, static photographs find their place most often as either “documentation” or “fine art”.
However, there are Fluxus practitioners that do integrate Fluxus very directly into their work. Perhaps the best example is the artist, Brad Brace. Brad has been working on a photo (and photocopier) based project for many, many years. His 12 hour ISBN Project began back in 1994 and continues online to this day. Brad describes the project as
Pointless Hypermodern Imagery… posted/mailed every 12 hours… a spectral, trajective alignment for the 00`s! A continuum of minimalist masks in the face of catastrophe; conjuring up transformative metaphors for the everyday… A poetic reversibility of exclusive events…
Recently Brad has published a massive collection of “thousands of enlarged and enhanced photographs, mostly low-res cellphone-camera self-portraits, culled from dating websites…”, a 2 gigabyte (plus) pdf book. It’s available to collectors for $250 and can be purchasd directly from Brad Brace (bbrace@eskimo.com).
Photographs have also been used by Reid Wood (State of Being) who has been photographing street signs and and similar odd bits of street text and posting his work to the Fluxlist Blog. Also on the Fluxlist Blog are photographs by Litsa Spathi. Her partner Ruud Jansen, has many flux-like photograps on Flickr and on his Facebook page.
Another artist who has recently made direct use of photography is Allan Revich (yes, me) who incorporates reflected text from storefronts and street scenes into his Urban Reflections series of photographs. Found photographs are also a part of his visual poetry.
In fact, “found” photographs are the most common use of photography in the Fluxus milieu… being quite common in collage work. I’ll address collage in another blog post though. Another realted upcoming post will cover photocopier and Xerox imaging, in which my friend and flux-colleague Reed Altemus has been especially active.
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It Don’t Mean Nothin’ (or does it?)
You can’t have something without having nothing…Alan Watts talks about nothing.
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Fluxus in the Spring: NYC 2010
Fluxfest in New York!
While (not yet) “officially” a Fluxfest, the weekend beginning on Thursday, April 15, 2010 is shaping up to be another exciting Festival of Fluxus in New York City. Here, courtesy of my favorite Fluxus impresario, Keith Buchholz is the itinerary so far. Be there… or be somewhere else!
Thursday, April 15th – Gaglione opening at Stendhal / Dada machine Fluxus performance:
Performers are: Picasso Gaglione, Darlene Dormel, Joshua Rutherford, Jessica
Feinstein, Keith Buchholz, Reed Altemus, Melissa McCarthy, Ruud Janssen, Christine Tarantino, and Mark Bloch. His show opens at 7pm. Performance begins at perform at 8:32 PM, sharp.
Friday, April 16th – Inside / Outside Fluxfest at Printed Matter
Performers (so far) are:
Reed Altemus, Picasso Gaglione, Joshua Rutherford, Melissa McCarthy, Perry Garvin, Ruud Janssen, Christine Tarantino, Darlene Dormel, Warren Fry, Jennifer Zoellner, Jessica Feinstein, Mark Bloch, Keith A. Buchholz, Olchar F. Lindsann, Tomislav Butovic, and whoever else shows up to perform.
The performance is at 6 pm with the first 30 minutes inside Printed Matter.
At 6:30 the festivities move outside and a banner that says “FLUXUS STREET THEATRE” will be unfurled, and begin the second part of the performance.
Printed Matter will be featuring the release of a new series of Performance score pamphlets that evening, featuring the scores of new and established Fluxus artists.
Friday Night, Following the Performance – 8pm New York Correspondence School Dinner – at Katz’s Deli
Spread the word!!! – a classic meeting reemerges at historic Katz’s ….
Be sure to let your friends know – It would be great to have as many folks there as possible.
Saturday, April 17th – Lectures at Stendhal – John Held Jr., Ruud Janssen,
and Geert De Decker ( Stuka Fabryka ) Lecture on Mail Art, Rubber Stamp, and
Fluxus. Tentatively scheduled for 1 PM..
Saturday Night – Please Mr. Postman! It’s Sticker Dude’s Birthday!
Joel Cohen (Stickerdude) hosts an evening of music and mayhem with mail artists at a coffeehouse in Brooklyn. …Details to follow in New York.
Sunday Morning – The Raid on Rutgers:
For those who wish to venture out on the train, the Post Neo Absurdists have put together an informal tour of HISTORIC FLUXUS SITES on the Campus of RUTGERS. See where the FLUXMASS really happened… And lots more! Hosts Olchar, Warren, and Tomislav have done all the footwork – this will be fun!
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Cecil Touchon, Interviewed by Matthew Rose
The following is a brief excerpt from an excellent interview of the collage artist, Cecil Touchon, by Paris-based artist and curator, Matthew Rose. The full text of the interview can be read online at http://cecil.touchon.com/interview-matthewrose.html
Matthew Rose: Collage has a long and rich history in Modern Art, beginning formally with Picasso’s and Braque’s experimental canvases in the early 20th century, cutting newspapers and wall papers and adding them to their canvases. The effects were to inject a sense of found realism into their tableaux and change forever the illusion of the picture plane. Since then, of course, collage has become a dominate form of artistic production. Schwitters most well known works are collage pieces; the Dadaists brought collage into a new world not only with physical art works but with performances in a kind of audio and perceptual collage. Painting, as a result of all this early 20th century activity was forced to change, and one might say that all painting now is influenced by collage.
As an artist who has long worked the medium of collage in both cut paper and paint, how do you assess the state of the art of collage?
Cecil Touchon: I would have to say that the state of the art just now is very much alive and the number of artists working in the medium is growing. My efforts to understand and advance this constructive medium have, aside from my own art making, been in the area of developing an online community of collage artists around a central hub which is the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction (collagemuseum.com) that I founded in 1998.
The museum began as an online virtual museum and then, through various projects, has developed into a significant archive of actual collage and assemblage art. The collection numbers in the thousands of actual works. My intention has been to create a focal point for collage art. I hope to draw artists together working in this medium so that we might all know each other’s work. Communicating together as colleagues, we discuss issues related to collage such as its history, techniques, materials, copyright and archival issues. We also share information about artists currently working in collage. I also wish as to inspire and promote exhibitions. Through this continuous banter it is possible to get a sense of what everyone is thinking about and what ideas are circulating…
I have excerpted only the very beginning of the interview. The full interview includes images, illustrations, and photographs, in addition to an exceptionally thoughful commentary on contemporary collage.
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Walker Art Center: Fluxus Definition
From the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis, Minnesota:
Definition of Fluxus:
Fluxus is not: a movement, a moment in history, an organization. Fluxus is: an idea, a kind of work, a tendency, a way of life, a changing set of people who do Fluxworks.–Dick Higgins
Fluxus is a loosely affiliated international network of visual artists, new-music composers, writers, and performers who have been active since the early 1960s.
Beginning with a series of festivals featuring concerts of new experimental music and other avant-garde performance, Fluxus artists reacted against the commodity status of art, its commercialization in the gallery system, and its static presentation in traditional institutions. They often rejected the concept of artistic genius and single authorship in favor of a collective spirit and a collaborative practice.
Fluxus compositions or scores for performances and events involve simple actions, ideas, and objects from everyday life. Some scores, such as those in George Brecht‘s Water Yam (1972), were printed on cards and then packaged into plastic boxes and sold as inexpensive multiples. These scores call for open-ended actions and events that can be performed by anyone at any time in any place. Also on view is Yoko Ono‘s Invitation to Participate in a Water Event, in which she invited people to bring containers to her 1971 exhibition. These vessels were filled with water, displayed in the show, and labeled as collaborative works of art.
Sometimes a documentation or artifact from a Fluxus event became a work of art, a material presence that referred to an absent action or previous performance. Alison Knowles‘ Journal of the Identical Lunch (1971), documents her ritual noontime performances at a New York diner with various artists and friends. In Dick Higgins’ ongoing series, The Thousand Symphonies, he composes musical scores with bullet holes and paint on sheet music. The result is both a documentation of the artist’s action and a work of visual art.
Incorporating musical compositions, concrete poetry, visual art, and writing, Fluxus performances embody Higgins’ idea of “intermedia”–a dialogue between two or more media to create a third, entirely new art form. Fluxus performance also incorporates actions and objects, artists and non-artists, art and everyday life in an attempt to find something “significant in the insignificant.” The influence of this highly experimental, spontaneous, often humorous form of performance art prevailed through the 1970s and has been rediscovered by a younger generation of artists working today.
I really like this definition. It pays respectful homage to the historical aspects of Fluxus, while remaining completely open to the idea that Fluxus continued to the present day, and that many people continue to include themselves within the Fluxus meme.
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Yoko Ono: Imagine Peace for Fluxfest Chicago
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?