Dear Mr. Clavez,
Thank you for the note. We do indeed have humour, and lots of it, in performance and in person. Since all eight of us do not answer mail at one time unless we are making a group statement, we have deliberately adopted a somewhat formal approach. Perhaps this makes us appear to be without humour. If so, we simply accept that working as a group raises issues that affect our style of communicating.
We agree with you that George Maciunas was full of humour. We also note that he was clear and specific about such issues as attribution and historical priority. Many people accused him of being pendantic, and many of the Fluxus artists accused him of being a control freak. Some of the accustions were dead serious. Other accusations were intended as loving half-jokes, but they were half-serious and loving at the same time.
We're not George Maciunas, so we're not in a position to judge. We know from what we read and from our correspondence that Mr. Maciunas was a far more complex individual than many recognize. We keep his humor alive in our performances. We preserve the formal and slightly pedantic Maciunas in our style of correspondence, complete with a stiff, high collar and bowler hat.
We tip our hats to you, all eight of us, to the beat of a Fluxus metronome.
Sincerely,
Secret Fluxus
Dear S.F.,
A breif answer to your question:
Did you mean to say that Yoko Ono Piano Drop is actually the correct title of Al Hansen's piano drop work?
I meant to do something you never do, but by accident, humor. Actually, humor is a fondamental clue in Fluxus, as you probably know, and you should try some day, it relaxes: even Maciunas was full of humor.
Bertrand.
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