I apologize on behalf of all jaded New Yorkers. It appears that Vermont is
way funkier than any of our fevered little brains could have imagined.
A thousand gritty tears for every cow. Two thousand more for the naked
mental patient.
(Personally, I would have labelled them CAR - I'll bet that would have
increased their survival rate a little.)
----------
>From: David Baptiste Chirot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: FLUXLIST: Beuys
>Date: Wed, Dec 6, 2000, 9:31 AM
>
>
>
> My first memories of hearing about Fluxus and Happenings--I was
> about ten--in 1963. Some friends who visited a lot from New York City
> talked about it--my brother who was seven and I were fascinated--
>
> "Happenings"--"Fluxus"--sounded like the amazing things one saw
> continually as small child in small Vermont village--daily things of
> startling import and awe inspiring magic--that were always in "flux" or
> "happening all around us"--
>
> Like the man who came into town with a bear strapped to his truck
> crying --he hadn't
> t realized he was so "blind drunk" that he had shot this instead of a
> deer!--or farmers who painted "COW" on all their cows so hunters from out
> of state wouldn't
> t shoot them by mistake during hunting season--prompting the question--can
> people from out of the state READ?--as they shot them anyway--
>
> Or the woman who escaped from the mental institution and arrived
> in our general stare stark naked, walked around for some hours fingering
> items on the shelves and talking to the populace at large--as no one
> bothered to call the police or any authority figure as was far too
> interesting a Happening to interupt!
>
> The same friends had talked about Concrete Poetry so my father had
> an anthology--this was a bit later--which also prompted quite some
> enthusiasm--on or part--we got hold of lot of concrete blocks from various
> half hearted unfinished construction projects now sinking into weeds and
> made "Concrete" Poems by arranging the blocks in the back yard--
>
> Were "Pooh Sticks" Fluxus we wondered? How about the man down the
> street who periodically hung an effigy of his wife from the top of the
> barn fro passersby to see--and she retaliated ted by slaughtering his dog--
> in front of a group of invited friends, before serving a picnic lunch in
> the pasture?
>
> Or the time my mother wanted to make us boudin (french-canadian
> blood sausage)--and she was so revolted by the sight of twenty jars of pig
> blood a friend began unloading from his station wagon--she vomited and
> ordered us to dispose of it--
>
> so we hauled over the the jars and spread them paint-like all over
> a despised neighbor's field, writing obscenities in blood--and all the
> dogs for miles around came and madly began howling and licking the blood
> from the grass and rocks and stubble--
>
> the police were called and stood there laughing and applauding the
> ingenuity of the wrong doers--as they also disliked the fellow--
>
> we thought this all might have something to do with Fluxus and
> Happenings--
>
> so used to produce plays in the junked car lot in a pasture, where
> the chickens laid eggs in back seats of trashed Chevrolets smelling of old
> afternoons, cum and beer, cigarettes--and cows hid out from thunderstorms
> among rust
> corroded trucks--
>
> plays in which we had "vanishing events"--ie. burning things!--and
> we'd sing worldess sound songs to the smoke carrying away the trash--
>
> or invade the town dump with an 8mm movie camera to film our idea
> of Rimbaud's A SEASON IN HELL--
>
> we had our friends bring up things from NYC about Fluxus and
> Happenings--also of great interest were the journals EAST
> VILLAGE OTHER
> and Ed Sanders' FUCK YOU A MAGAZINE OF THE ARTS--
>
> all this was before went to live in France in 67-68, 69 and
> '70--and discovered "action art" i.e. making bombs and grafitti--
> posters and begin learning about the Paris Commune, Rimbaud, "les
> petroleuses" (women incendiaries of the Commune)--
>
> Situationism, Anarchism--
>
> the only Flux person met in person--besides Dick Higgins in
> 97--was
> Nam June Paik--audited a course he taught at MIT in the late '70's--
>
> to me the great movements of the 20th century--beginning with
> Futurism in Italy, then Russia, Cubist use of collage, Dada, (Schwitters i
> think kind of the one artist one might say so many art forms in so many
> media radiate outwards from--)--early modernism of William Carlos Williams'
> SPRING AND ALL in america--in all of these what is important and is to
> me in Fluxus--is th use of everyday materials, that art and life not
> seperate--
>
> and that things though they may be in Flux, are also concrete--
>
> from the material world of the senses, not solely "conceptual"
> "theoretical"
>
> i like Fluxlist as only list I know of where we actually get
> together and MAKE things, events, contacts, virtual sites, happenings as
> well as materialized ones--not just talking "about", but making--
>
> doing, living--
>
> "What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say,
> literature"
>
> --Henry Miller "The 14th Ward" in BLACK SPRING
>
> the only actual Fluxus dpcument i have left from back then is
>
> 'THIS IS A FLUXUS ADVERTISMENT"
>
> wrap around cover strip for the Fall 1963 issue of FILM
> CULTURE--corrugated carboard cover with a round hole in it so one eye of
> Stan Brakhage peers out in silver--the whole issue is METPHORS ON VISION
> by Brakhage
>
> the Fluxus advertisment is for works available from Fluxus 1963
> Edtions--includes V TRE magazine edited by George Brecht, works by
> Vautier, Knowles, Watts, Nam June Paik, Chieko Shiomi. Spoerri and
> Francois Dufresne, E. Williams, Filliou, Patterson, Higgins, Flynt, La
> Monte Young, Ayo, Takehisa Kosugi--
>
>
> so my knowledge of Fluxus history very sketchy to say the
> least--never even heard of Beuys until years later--was more something
> inspiring to make things--and keep one busy and having a grand old time--
>
> was a huge shcok to see Conceptual Art exhibits in NYC in the
> Seventies--a piece of string hanging on wall--with an explanation about it
> on six foot high scroll--
>
> reminded me of those mangled-all-the-same COWs painted words
> lying keeled over in pastures, shot by some person--and made one wonder--
>
> can people from out of state READ?--apparently when they had
> learned to--they forgot how to make things!
>
> "stringing up" "art" with accompanying "documents"--reminded one
> of an
> execution by implacable Legal Authorities!
>
> which led to interest ever more in writing--as mysterious
> activity--
>
> i.e.--what is legible?--in relation with what is visible?--and
> sounded out? and acted out?--
>
> no barriers among any of them--leads to Visual Poetry--
>
> probably oldest art form yet so much also part of modern world
> since its "official" appearance with Mallarme's "Un Coup de des"--
>
> to this day find the quiet Schwitters far more daily inspration
> when out finding things in the street for works--than more bombastic
> Beuys--
>
> still, Schwitters could also make some mighty sounds--Sound
> Poetry--the Ur-Sonate!--
>
> and greatly inspired by the art/social action of Clemente Padin
> and Luc Fierens, who just joined this list--
>
> --david baptiste chirot
>
>
>
