A recent exhibition at the Stendhal Gallery in Chelsea gave pause for thought. And another chance to play catch-up with Fluxus, during what might be a Neo-Fluxus period. Solidified just before Conceptual Art per se, Fluxus was truly international. To the accusation that Fluxus is just Dada in sheep’s clothing, Fluxians would reply that unlike Dada, their religion accentuates the positive rather than the negative. Fluxus is often humorous, but humor in art is no laughing matter. Fluxus humor is not what the Surrealists called “black humor.” It doesn’t go for the jugular. Nevertheless, unlike a great deal of current art, the Fluxus institutional critique is structural rather than rhetorical and not just a barely disguised plea for membership in the club.
“Ken Friedman: 99 Events” presented that number of the artist’s scores, plus 38 handwritten “drawings” (some with collage elements) documenting Events from 1982 to 1990, but executed in this format last year. In total, the 137 pieces (1956-2009) cover a wide range of Fluxus genres:
1. Instructions for activities in front of an audience.
Stage Reversal
Go on stage naked, covered with paint.
Wash
Dress and leave stage.
1966
First performed at the Avenue C FluxusRoom in New York in October, 1966.
2. Instructions for activities without an audience.
Hat
Mail a hat.
1966
3. Instructions for making exhibitions
Place things on the floor.
1970
Herewith, because it is so revealing about his approach to art, I append a slightly edited note about the piece, published in the online catalog.
In 1970, I had a conversation with the director of the art gallery at University of California at Santa Barbara about the possibility of an exhibition at the university. He invited me to visit him, asking me to bring examples of my work and some of the pieces I might like to exhibit…
I made an appointment to see him. The day that I left, I grabbed a selection of objects and projects from my stucio, threw them into a box, and took them with me. When I got to Santa Barbara, we spoke together for a while. Then he asked me to bring in my work…
I brought the box into his office, opened it, and unpacked the objects, placing them on the floor, along the length of a wall. He looked at the objects for a while. Perhaps it was a long while. I am not sure, but it seemed that way to me.
Finally, he looked at me and said, “But these are just ordinary objects.”
At first, I thought he understood my work quite well.
Later, I realized that he saw these objects in a very different way than I did.
4. Instructions for making a nuisance of yourself.
Fast Food Event
Go into a fast food restaurant.
Order one example
of every item on the menu.
Line everything up
in a row on the table.
Eat the items one at a time,
starting at one end of the row
and moving systematically
from each to the next.
Finish each item before
moving on to the next.
Eat rapidly and methodically
until all the food is finished.
Eat as fast as possible
without eating too fast.
Eat neatly.
Do not make a mess.
1964
But that’s not all. There are examples of Mail Art, Radio Art, Street Works, Earth Art, and much more.
Furthermore, the future is here:
The 99 “scores” can be perused in the free-to-download online catalog, here and there replete with very, very interesting, longish notes by Friedman. This, by the way, is the wave of the future. All gallery and museum catalogs will be available for free online. Think of all the trees that will be spared and all of the storage space now used for unsold tomes that will be released. Think of all the shelf-space that will be liberated. Think of those who will be able to see and read about a show who wouldn’t have been able to do that before.