8/8/2019 Fluxus Revised and Revisited http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/fluxus-revised-and-revisited 1/4 Review: Fluxus Revised and Revisited Author(s): Elizabeth Beckman and Jonathan Applefield Source: Art Journal, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 100-102 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777864 Accessed: 08/10/2010 19:01 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=caa . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. College Art Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Journal.
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Review: Fluxus Revised and RevisitedAuthor(s): Elizabeth Beckman and Jonathan ApplefieldSource: Art Journal, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 100-102Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777864
Accessed: 08/10/2010 19:01
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
the artistsin the exhibition and one withLettyLou Eisenhauer,in which the work
of Watts and Brecht is discussed. The inter-
views primarilyfocus on the artists' con-
nection with Rutgersand their relation-
ships with one another. Jacobsprovidesan essay that relates Cage's classes and his
1958 lecture at Rutgersto the art in the
exhibition. The catalogue also includes
a serviceablebibliography, an extensive
chronology, and a number of previously
unpublished black-and-white and color
photographs. An important coda to the
publication is "Project n Multiple Dimen-sions" (i957), a previously unpublished
proposal by Watts, Brecht, and Kaprow
outlining a program for art education that
foregrounds multimedia, new technology,and scientific methods in studio practice.
However, one flaw in the presentation
(especially evident in the catalogue) is the
role with which Rutgersis credited in
the formation of the artists' experimental
approachesto art. In fact, the progressive
teaching at the school was less the productof a philosophy endorsed by the adminis-
tration than the fortuitous arrival of newfaculty consisting of Kaprow, Hendricks,
Watts, and Lichtenstein. It sometimes
sounds as if an act of nostalgic romanti-
cization or institutional boosterism takes
place here. One reason for this is to
strengthen the exhibition's raison d'etre--that is, to unify the eight players featured.
The catalogue's editor, Joan Marter,re-
prints a lengthy excerpt from Kaprowto
add some local color to the "stimulatingambiance on the New Brunswickcampus"
(2). But this excerpt is more interesting
for what she omits: "The university wassunken in poetic indifference, in a blank
sleep preserved by campus dons and ladies'
clubs .... Ironically, Rutgers was the cata-
lyst in all this, in spite of itself. For the
record, it never encouraged, and often
opposed, what we were doing in that for-
lorn place."* Thus, it was ironic that Book,
originally a part of Samaras'sM.A. thesis,
was included in the exhibition. The admin-
istrationwished to censor it, since it con-
tained language they found unacceptable,
but Kaprowardently interceded on his stu-
dent's behalf. Samaraseventually received
his degree, but Kaprow, passed over for
tenure shortly afterwards,left Rutgers.Thisis all paradoxical considering the cataloguemakes repeated comparisons between
Rutgersand Black Mountain College.Mr.Fluxus: CollectiveortraitfGeorge
Maciunas,ompiled and edited by three
Fluxus insiders, EmmettWilliams, Ann
No6l, and Ay-O, gathers in kaleidoscopic
fashion reflections and primarydocuments
from seventy different voices that bringto life the idiosyncratic, amazingly prolific
characterwho was the prime engine of
Fluxus. From Yoko Ono to the Deputy
AssistantAttorney General of New York,from KateMillet to the artist'sown mother,
a truly collective portraitunfolds as easilyand amusingly as if one were listening in
on a party line. This is not only due to the
content of the contributions, but also the
way they are arranged.The reader'stactile
senses are aroused as one shuttles back
and forth to the index to find the author
of each entry. LikeTristanTzaraor Andre
Breton, Maciunas'spersona has become the
subject of caricature,but this polyphonic
approach grounds the better known images
and anecdotes in a meaningful context,illuminated by first-handimpressions byintimate friends, colleagues, and occasional
foes.
The three hundred entries (usually no
more than a few paragraphseach), are
arrangedin thematic and chronological
chapters. They take the reader from "The
Old Country" (Maciunaswas Lithuanian)and "TheEuropeanFestivals" to "SeeingRed" (on Maciunas'spolitics), "Don
Quixote in SoHo" (his pioneering role in
establishing artistsco-operatives in SoHo)
and "Leaky Dreamboats" (his plans to "setup a Fluxus island, a colony, you know,
like a real country, with a United Nations
delegation and all that" [221]). These
last two chapters show the breadth of
Maciunas's idealism. "His achievement was
not only Fluxus, but also Soho," writes
Nam June Paik (194). This development
R e v i e w s
of "Hell's ioo Acres" (the fire depart-
ment's term for pre-artist colonized Soho)
is thoroughly documented with Maciunas
as primogenitor. It is he we may thank for
"illegally"planting the first trees in front
of 8o Wooster Street.
There are
humorous,touching, and
even tragicmoments in the
story as well,
which help to
explain the look and attitude of Fluxus in
general, as well as the personalrelation-
ships that defined the group. For instance,
one gains a sense of Maciunas's aesthetic
predilections in the midst of his legal
imbroglio over taxes with the Attorney
General's Office. His reply to bureaucracy:
a "Flux-fortress(for keeping away the mar-shals & police: various unbreakable doors
with giant cutting blades facing out ...trick doors and ceiling hatches, filled or
backed with white powder, liquids, smellyextracts" [i85]). Such gags are in keepingwith many of the humorous boxes he pro-duced under the Fluxus imprimatur. (Years
later, he would construct a similar Flux
Labyrinthat the Akademieder Kiinstein
Berlin). Another example of the relation
of his personal life to Fluxus history is the
way his friends joined Maciunas in his last
months of fighting cancer, assemblingmore Fluxus boxes to raise much needed
money for his medical bills.
The most valuable aspect of this liter-
ary portraitcomes not from anecdotes or
historical facts, but from the more intangi-ble aspects of his art that one gleans from
Maciunas'stemperament, mannerisms, per-sonal habits, tastes, and obsessions. His
penchant for cleanliness, drive for system-atic organization, compulsive thriftiness,
and love of practical jokes extended far
beyond the confines of his life to infuse
every aspect of Fluxus. All boundariesbetween personal biography and Fluxus
seem to collapse, making Mr.Fluxus n illu-
minating account not only of Maciunas the
man, but a window into the larger concep-tual and aesthetic field he dominated.
question, What is Fluxus? While it mustbe admitted that the literature dedicated
to this difficult subject is dominated byexhaustive inventories of people, places,and events, ratherthan any criticalanalysesof the actual works of the artists, few
essays here offer original interpretations.The anthology begins with "Three
Histories" that rely heavily on primarysources. The essays explore whether Fluxus
was a movement, its similarities and differ-
ences from Dada, and other academic con-
cerns. Although useful as a chronology
of performancesand publicationswith a
description of group polemics, this section
presents an evisceratedhistory, with noth-
ing more than a list of events describingthe circumstancessurroundingvarious
Fluxuspieces. Predictablebows to Maciunas
and Cage complete a compendium of
superficialinformation.
Thankfully,Ina Blom's "Boredom and
Oblivion" picks up the pace. She exploresmore than the usual erasureof boundaries
between life and art that writers so often
talk about without saying anything sub-
stantial. Instead of dropping Cage's namewith the typical historical information that
he was key to the avant-garde n the late
i95os, Blom discusses the central difficul-
ties Cage's theories presented to the Fluxus
artist. For instance, she illustrateshow
Paik and Dick Higgins probed into change,
chance, and variation strategiesthat became
foundations for many Fluxus artists. She
also examines why an artistwould pur-
posely explore a concept as apparentlydull
as a melting ice cube. This discussion is
in relation to Brecht'sinterpretationof the
law of thermodynamics "as just a summa-tion of a very large number of individual
chance events" (71). She examines the
meaning of boredom in a Fluxus work,
explaining how it is a catalyst to fade the
work into the environment-destroying
boundaries.
Two other essays worth mentioning
are Dick Higgins's "Fluxus:Theory and
Reception" and Friedman's "Fluxus and
Company." Higgins demonstrates what
Fluxus borrowed and rejected from three
avant-gardemovements: Futurism,Dada (a
comparison he finds "extremely annoying"
[218]), and Surrealism.Significantly,he
analyzes how a Fluxuspiece affects a par-
ticipant. He concludes that the more an
audience interactsin or with a Fluxus
work, the more enjoyment it will experi-ence. According to Higgins, an essential
part of being Fluxus is not catering to col-
lectors, gallerists,and museum curators.
The most interesting part of the essay man-
ifests itself when Higgins asks who can be
a Fluxus artist;he even mentions criteria
for new Fluxus artists to follow, suggestingthat Fluxus is not dead. Friedman also
addressesthis endlessly argued polemic.
Some historians end Fluxus with the deathof Maciunas.They ignore the "twelve core
issues that can be termed the basic ideas
of Fluxus" (244), which Friedman defines
meticulously. He insinuates that Fluxus
is an evolving entity: "it has undergonea continuous process of co-creation and
renewal for four decades," and he contin-
ues to say, "We are still here" (253).
If after all this, you remain at a loss as
to the question of "What is Fluxus?"read
Miller's "MaybeFluxus (A Para-
InterrogativeGuide for the Neoteric
Transmuter,Tinder, Tinkerand Totalist),"arrangedas a series of twenty-three scenar-
ios. Miller takes on important philosophical
quagmires that puzzle us all, such as,
"Maybe you wonder if there is a certain
attire for Fluxperformance-should you
get any common worker's uniform, get
nude, get a tuxedo and gown, cross-dress
or simply come-as-you-are?" (212). Or
more imperatively: "Maybeyou think
Fluxus, dead-or-alive, is just neo-Dada-
should we therefore anticipateeither a
post-appropriationism or a post-plagiarism
with the appearance of neo-Fluxus?"Not surprisingly, The FluxusReader
concludes with a hefty thirty-eight page
chronology of events. While useful for
checking a date or location, such invento-
ries, an unfortunate commonplace in
Fluxus literature, tend to deaden the sub-
ject and dampen reader interest. The book
does come alive, however, when put
alongside the two other publications under
review. Takentogether, catalogue (admit-
tedly with its broader focus), biography,and anthology offer a well-rounded historyof Fluxus.
I. BenjaminH. D.
Buchloh, "ReadyMade, ObjetTrouv6, Idle ReCue,"n Dissent: TheIssueofModernArt nBoston(Boston: Institute of
Contemporary Art, 1985), 107-22.
2. George Brecht, "Notes on Shippingand
ExhibitingMedicine Cabinet,"November 16,1961, artist's file, The Museumof Modern Art,New York.
3. AllanKaprow,"Introduction o a Theory," in
G. DiMaggio,ed., bullshit01 (Milan:MulthiplaEdizioni, 1991).4. AllanKaprow,in 10 FromRutgers, xh. cat
(New York: BianchiniGallery, 1965), 3.
ElizabethBeckman is an artist and art historian
who teaches at the National Museum of the
American Indian,Smithsonian Institution,New
York.JonathanApplefield (Columbia University,M.A., 1991: M.Phil.,1993) is a Research and