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Fluxus “Everything is art and anyone can do it” Fluxus Street Theatre by George Maciunas, Copyright: © 2007 Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Foundation, Detroit.

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Fluxus

“Everything is art and anyone can do it”

Fluxus Street Theatre by George Maciunas, Copyright: © 2007 Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Foundation, Detroit.

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Fluxus

“Fluxus remains the most complex – and therefore widely underestimated – artistic movement (or “non-movement,” as it called itself) of the early to mid-sixties . . . Fluxus saw no distinction between art and life, and believed that routine, banal, and everyday actions could be regarded as artistic events, declaring that ‘everything is art and everyone can do it.’” Hal Foster et al., Art Since 1900

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Fluxus The Lithuanian-born George Maciunas launched the Fluxus movement in 1961

George Maciunas, Self Portrait, 1965 Wikipedia

“What Fluxus was is a matter of some debate. Was it an art movement, an anti-art movement, a sociopolitical movement or, as the artists themselves tended to protest, not a movement at all?” Ken Johnson, “Liberating Viewers, and the World, with Stillness,” New York Times 23 September 2011

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Fluxus He had also studied with John Cage at the New School

John Cage preparing a piano, c. 1964 Image source: http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2008/01/european-premiere-john-cage-variations.html

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Fluxus Like Happenings, Fluxus emphasized viewer participation and an integration of art and life

Allan Kaprow, Words, 1962 Smolin Gallery, New York Image source: http://www.no-art.info/kaprow/works/1961_words.html

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Fluxus But Fluxus was more international in scope

Wiesbaden, Berlin and Kassel: Harlekin Art Berliner Kunstlerprogramm Des DAAD, 1982. First edition. Image source: http://www.derringerbooks.com/shop/derringer/010077.html

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Fluxus And it was much closer to Dada in its radical anti-art stance

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Fluxus Most Happenings were “theatrical” in approach, retaining a division between audience and performer

Jim Dine, the Smiling Workman, 1960

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Fluxus But Fluxus strove to beak down this division by creating what could be called “do-it-yourself-art”

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Fluxus In 1963 Maciunas issued a Fluxus Manifesto

George Maciunas, Fluxus Manifesto, 1963 Image source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2008/nov/03/fluxus-gallery?picture=339281412

“PURGE the world of dead art . . . . “

“Promote living art, anti-art, promote NON ART REALITY to be grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals.”

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Fluxus A second Manifesto denounced art as a self-promoting industry

George Maciunas, Self Portrait, 1965 Wikipedia

ART

To justify artist's professional, parasitic and elite status in society, he must demonstrate artist's indispensability and exclusiveness, he must demonstrate the dependability of audience upon him, he must demonstrate that no one but the artist can do art.

Therefore, art must appear to be complex, pretentious, profound, serious, intellectual, inspired, skillful, significant, theatrical, It must appear to be calculable as commodity so as to provide the artist with an income. To raise its value (artist's income and patrons profit), art is made to appear rare, limited in quantity and therefore obtainable and accessible only to the social elite and institutions.

George Maciunas, Manifesto on Art/Fluxus Art Amusement 1965 http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/gmaciunas-artartamusement.html

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Fluxus Maciunias promoted the idea of Fluxus as a mass-produced “amusement” that could be made by anybody and that would be accessible to all

George Maciunas, Self Portrait, 1965 Wikipedia

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Fluxus

George Maciunas, Self Portrait, 1965 Wikipedia

FLUXUS ART-AMUSEMENT

Therefore, art-amusement must be simple, amusing, unpretentious, concerned with insignificances, require no skill or countless rehearsals, have no commodity or institutional value.

The value of art-amusement must be lowered by making it unlimited, Mass-produced, obtainable by all and eventually produced by all.

Fluxus art-amusement is the rear-guard without any pretention or urge to participate in the competition of "one-upmanship" with the avant-garde. It strives for the monostructural and nontheatrical qualities of simple natural event, a game or a gag. It is the fusion of Spikes Jones Vaudeville, gag, children's games and Duchamp.

George Maciunas, Manifesto on Art/Fluxus Art Amusement 1965 http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/gmaciunas-artartamusement.html

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Fluxus To this end, Maciunas set up a a Fluxshop and mail order business where he sold “Fluxkits” comprised of items made by various Fluxus participants

Fluxshop and Mailorder Warehouse, Fluxus Newspaper. Image source: http://artsconnected.org/collection/118487/art-in-the-1960s?print=true

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Fluxus The “Fluxkits” contained games, pamphlets, and other nonsensical items

Fluxkit, 1964/65. Fluxus edition, assembled by George Maciunas. Photo: Walker Art Center. Image source: http://slangfromchaos.wordpress.com/tag/fluxus/

“You could think of Fluxus as an international, utopian conspiracy to alter the world’s collective consciousness in favor of noncompetitive fun and games and other peaceable and pleasurable pursuits. Their weapons of choice were feeble jokes, verbal and visual puns, satiric publications and instructions for absurd performances. Bypassing the commercial gallery system, Fluxus novelties were meant to be sold cheaply by mail and in artist-run stores.” Ken Johnson, “Liberating Viewers, and the World, with Stillness,” New York Times 23 September 2011

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Fluxus They were inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s Boite en valise, as well as his penchant for games

Marcel Duchamp, Boit en valise, 1941

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Fluxus A typical Fluxkit item is George Brecht’s Water Yam -- a box of “event scores” that were instructions for ephemeral events

George Brecht, Water Yam, 1963 Flickr

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George Brecht, Word Event, 1961. From: Water Yam (collected scores), 1986.

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George Brecht, Two Vehicles Events, 1961

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MOTOR VEHICLE SUNDOWN 1960

Motor Vehicle Sundown is a verbal instruction piece scored for any number of motor vehicles arranged outdoors. For each vehicle, 22 auditory and visual events and 22 pauses are written onto randomly shuffled instruction cards. Beside 'pause', the events include: Headlights on and off, Parking lights on and off, sound horn, sound siren, sound bell(s), accelerate motor, radio on and off, strike window with knuckles, open or close door (quickly, with moderate speed, slowly), open or close engine hood, operate special equipment (carousels, ladders, fire hoses with truck-contained pumps and water supply), operate special lights (truck-body, safety, signal, warning, signs, displays). At sundown '(relatively dark/open area incident light 2 foot-candles or less)', the performers arrive at the same time, seat themselves in the cars and start their engines at approximately the same time. They follow the instructions, substituting equipment for that which they do not have, and turn off their engines when they are finished.

http://members.chello.nl/j.seegers1/flux_files/brecht_performances.html#top George Brecht, Motor Vehicle Sundown Event, 1960

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Fluxus This Fluxkit included Ben Vautrier’s “Total Art Matchbox”

George Macunias, Flux Yearbook 2, late 1960s

Ben Vautrier, Total Art Matchbook, 1966 http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/bvautier--.html

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Inclined Plane Puzzle, 1965, Fluxus Edition, George Brecht, assembled by George Maciunas, Wooden box with ball, label and score. Photo: Archiv Sohm, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Image source: http://slangfromchaos.wordpress.com/tag/fluxus/

Robert Filliou’s “Optimistic Box #3 — So much the better if you can’t play chess (you won’t imitate Marcel Duchamp),” a fold-up chess set from 1969. Image source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/nyregion/celebrating-fluxus-a-movement-that-didnt-create-by-the-rules-review.html?_r=1

“The idea of art (or life) as a game in which the artist reconfigures the rules is central to Fluxus. Martha Schwendener, “Celebrating Fluxus, a Movement that Didn’t Create by Rules, New York Times 6 January 2012

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Fluxus Ay-O’s “fingerboxes” were filled with soft material such as feathers or foam

Fluxus, Ay-O’s Fingerboxes, 1964 Flickr

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Fluxus, Ay-O’s Fingerboxes, 1964 Image source: http://artsconnected.org/collection/118487/art-in-the-1960s?print=true

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Fluxus There were also Fluxus music festivals

George Maciunas, Poster for ‘Fluxusfestspiele’, 1962 http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/fluxusfestspiele/

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Fluxus George Brecht’s Drip Music was clearly inspired by John Cage

George Maciunas performing George Brecht's Drip Music, Amsterdam, 1963 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT5lgaE-qZY

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Fluxus Other artists involved with Fluxus included Nam June Paik who performed Zen for Head at a Fluxus festival in Wiesbaden

Nam June Paik, Zen for Head, 1962

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Fluxus Robert Rauschenberg’s Automobile Tire Print was similar in concept

Listen to the artist discuss the work at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7M6LQJnGcA

Robert Rauschenberg, Automobile Tire Print, 1953 SFMOMA

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Fluxus Paik collaborated with cellist Charlotte Moorman on several Fluxus musical performances

Peter Moore, Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik Performing 26'1.499" for a String Player 1965/2003

Sound file: Charlotte Moorman, 26’1.499” WBAI-FM “Avant Garde Concert III”. Originally broadcast December 12 & 17, 1964. A Recording of the Annual Avant Garde Festival Program of August 30, 1964

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Fluxus He later became a leading pioneer of video art

Lim Young-kyun, Nam June Paik, 1981 Wikipedia

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Fluxus Many Fluxus music performances involved the actual destruction of instruments

The piano, with its elitist associations, was a favorite target

Piano Activities, by Philip Corner, as performed in Wiesbaden, 1962, by Emmett Williams, Wolf Vostell, Nam June Paik, Dick Higgins, Benjamin Patterson and George Maciunas Wikipedia

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Fluxus Nam June Paik (who was trained as a classical pianist) performed a piano piece by banging his head against the keys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlVbT3cp0E0

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Fluxus George Maciunas wrote a series of event scores for piano that anybody could perform

http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/gmaciunas-12pianocompositi.html

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Fluxus Sonic Youth’s performance of Maciunas’ Piano #13 can be seen on YouTube

It involves hammering nails into the keys of a piano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=832ApdjhMcs

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Fluxus Another artist associated with Fluxus was Yoko Ono, who became famous as the wife of John Lennon

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in front of George Maciunus’s Fluxus Flag comparing casualties in Vietnamn to historical genocide records

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Fluxus Ono associated with the Fluxus circle but was ambivalent about belonging to a “movement”

Yoko Ono with Fluxus artists, 1965

“I never considered myself a member of any group. I was just doing my own thing, and I'm sure that most artists I knew in those days felt the same.” http://www.a-i-u.net/onolife4.html

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Fluxus She composed conceptually-oriented “instruction paintings” that were similar to George Brecht’s event scores

Yoko Ono, Painting to be Stepped On, 1960

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Fluxus The scripts could be performed or imagined in the mind of the viewer

Yoko Ono, Painting to See the Skies, 1961

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Fluxus Ono distinguished her work from “Happenings” by emphasizing their conceptual orientation

“Among my instruction paintings, my interest is mainly in “painting to construct in your head” . . . There is no visual object that does not exist in comparison to or simultaneously with other objects, but these characteristics can be eliminated if you wish. A sunset can go on for days. You can eat up all the clouds in the sky. You can assemble a painting with a person in the North Pole over a phone, like playing chess. This painting method derives from as far back as the time of the Second World War when we had no food to eat, and my brother and I exchanged menus in the air.” Yoko Ono, Lecture at Wesleyan University, 1966 http://www.flickr.com/photos/yokoonoofficial/2892207133/in/photostream/

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Fluxus In 1964 Ono published Grapefruit, a collection of her instruction pieces

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Fluxus She also experimented with performance art, such as Cut Piece which was performed in several international venues

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, Yamaichi Concert Hall, Kyoto, Japan, 1964

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Fluxus The artist explained her intention of surrendering the ego of the artist

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964

“Traditionally, the artist’s ego is in the artist’s work. In other words, the artist must give the artist’s ego to the audience. I had always wanted to produce work without ego in it . . . and the result of this was Cut Piece. Instead of giving the audience what the artist chooses to give, the artist gives what the audience chooses to take. That is to say, you cut and take whatever part you want; that was my feeling about its purpose.”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yokoonoofficial/2892799120/in/photostream/

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Fluxus But the performance has been interpreted as a powerful Feminist statement

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964

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Fluxus In 1966 Ono was invited to do a show at the Indica Gallery in London

It was here that she met john Lennon

Indica Gallery, 1966

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Fluxus Works from this show, along with notes, can be found on Yoko Ono’s official photostream on Flickr (the internet provides a perfect vehicle for the Fluxus ideal of accessible art)

Yoko Ono Official Photo Stream Flickr

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Fluxus This was an interactive piece in which the audience was invited to “add color”

Yoko Ono, Add Color Painting, 1966

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Fluxus In this work the viewer was invited to climb the ladder and view the painting with a magnifying glass

Yoko Ono, Ceiling Painting, 1966

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Fluxus The magnifying glass revealed the word “yes”

Yoko Ono, Ceiling Painting, 1966

“So it was positive. I felt relieved. It's a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn't say NO or FUCK YOU or something.” John Lennon, describing his reaction to Ceiling Painting when first viewed in 1966 http://www.flickr.com/photos/yokoonoofficial/2891959833/in/set-72157607541504677/

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Fluxus Shigeko Kubota was another Japanese-American artist active in the Fluxus movement

Shigeko Kubota and Nam June Paik

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Fluxus Her most famous work was a performance in which she made a painting with a paint brush attached to her crotch

Shigeko Kubota, Vagina Painting, 1965 Performed during the “Perpetual Fluxus Festival,” New York

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Fluxus The work was meant to be a parody of the “ejaculatory” rhetoric implicit in public celebrations of American action painting

Shigeko Kubota, Vagina Painting, 1965 Performed during the “Perpetual Fluxus Festival,” New York

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Contradictions of Fluxus While Fluxus aimed to be accessible, it was understandable to few

George Brecht, Water Yam, 1963

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Contradictions of Fluxus And while Fluxus challenged the commercialization of art, it did so by turning it into a mass-produced commodity (which nobody wanted to buy)

Fluxshop and Mailorder Warehouse, Fluxus Newspaper. Image source: http://artsconnected.org/collection/118487/art-in-the-1960s?print=true

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Web Resources

•  Fluxus @ Theartstory.org http://www.theartstory.org/movement-fluxus.htm

•  Martha Schwendener, “Celebrating Fluxus, a Movement that Didn’t Create by Rules, New York Times 6 January 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/nyregion/celebrating-fluxus-a-movement-that-didnt-create-by-the-rules-review.html?_r=1

•  Ken Johnson, “Liberating Viewers, and the World, with Stillness,” New York Times 23 September 2011http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/arts/design/fluxus-and-the-essential-questions-of-life-review.html

•  Adrian Searle, “Snapshots of a Revolution,” The Guardian 9 December 2008http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/dec/10/art

•  Fluxus Archive (online archive of Fluxus documents and works) http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/index2.html