Hearing no cries to the contrary, here we go "thoughts on Fluxus Part 1"
At the end of his 1953 "Manifesto for Concrete Poetry" Ovid Fahlstrom
wrote:
". . . what I have called concrete literature is not a style, any more
than concrete music or non-figurative art is. It is partly a way for
the reader to experience literary art, primarily poetry, and partly a
liberation for the poet, putting at his disposal all linguistic
material and all the means to work on it."
What Fahlstrom gives us as fundamental to his understanding of the
concrete is also central to many of the radical challenges, by artists
such as those grouped under the rubric Fluxus, to cultural modes of
operation in the 1950s and 1960s. Three central questions, both
indicated by Fahlstrom and practiced by Fluxus artists, are repeatedly
returned to in this period: what is the relationship between the artist
and the audience?, what are the materials of art?, and what are the
process of manipulation/creation available to the artist? Although such
a connection may be simplistic at best in that many artists throughout
the twentieth century have explored such questions, it is also still
worthwhile because of this very same simplicity. The key then is not so
much the general nature of the questions themselves, but the nuances of
related explorations and particularly the way in which the individual
answers for each of the three questions become combined in the act of
creation.
This discussion of some of the explorations that Fluxus artists pursued
and/or raised is not an attempt to historically locate Fluxus or define
its project, rather it is a consideration of some Fluxus works and
ideas as related to experimentalism. Prior to discussing any such
particular concerns and ideas it is necessary to consider the general
philosophical attitude which pervades many of the works and activities
often grouped under the term Fluxus. In all activities associated with
Fluxus there were a number of general, yet formative, aims and concerns
that shaped both the nature and the form of the works produced, whether
they be in literature, poetry, music, performance or the visual arts.
These include but are not limited to the following:
A rejection of the notion that art is first and foremost a process
of production that creates a unique object.
A stress on the non-hierarchical nature of the world outside of
human impositions.
Eschewing the role of the artist as special and as the
principal focus of the work and/or its appreciation.
An emphasis on the primary significance of process, change and
duration in the creation and presentation of works.
and
Discarding the significance of boundaries between types of
works through the use of new media, intermedia and even
non-media.
One of the more fundamental challenges in thinking and acting
precipitated by Fluxus was to no longer require a clarity of concept or
purpose as it relates to communication. The general Fluxus attitude, or
what I call a world view, seeks to open up the possibilities of
enactment as a manifestation of direct participation; participation as
part of a process which emphasizes the power of play, association and
creation without predetermined definitive characteristics or goals.
In Fluxus works, processes are enacted to establish multiple
possibilities containing both patterns of presence and absence which
create both an ambiguity of meaning as well as its opposite.
Simultaneous performance of George Brecht's Suitcase and
Two Durations (see Fluxus Performance Workbook for scores)
Suggested performance variation - get out your largest suitcase and
take it to the nearest grocery store or produce market. At the
market/store buy one red apple and one green apple and put them in the
suitcase. Take the suitcase home and put it away.
