Understanding of Fluxus
While watching a video about Fluxus in class, I was puzzled: Why do they do this? This cannot be called art. So after class, I looked up some relevant materials about Fluxus and did a deeper research.
One of the articles called Fluxus(2009) mentioned that: The idea behind the Fluxus movement is to rid the world of the sick psychology that comes from the desire to be wealthy, intelligent, and to pursue a career in business. It also aims to rid the world of imitation, pretentious art, abstract, fantasy, and mathematical art as well as to clean the environment. European conceptualism, which was at the forefront of the art reform movement, advocated for the art of life, was anti-academic, supported non-artistic realities, and was designed to be appealing to all types of audiences, not only artists, amateurs, and professionals. putting new cultural, social, and political ideas into practice.
An exploration of the three elements in Fluxus art
Meterial
At the beginning of the 20th century, when Western art could not break through the stagnation in the traditional art form, it began to be invited into the creation by artists who held the spirit of breakthrough at that time, constantly breaking the definition of art and innovating, so everything can be used as art, and art is no longer a shelved thing for people to admire, Therefore, the artistic creation method they choose is more inclined to any material, sound, image, and text that can be touched in life to create a combination of these new things, and with elements of short humor.
Time
Fluxus art does not have a strict time limit, it can be very long or short to integrate into daily life, regardless of the length of time, it is important to have an impact on the viewer in those moments and provoke thought.
Fluxus small experiment- inspiration
I named this little work of the Fluxus school "Delicious". Inspired by Allan Kaprow, 1959, "18 Events in 6
Parts of the Ruben Gallery" Inspired, the 90-minute irregular show showcases audiences and performers improvising under the flickering lights of the gallery: stepping on tires, racking balls, reading, listening to music and dancing. Each time, Capro wrote down on the cards what was going to happen and distributed it to the audience, instructing them to participate in different activities in different rooms sequentially over a period of time. These activities have no special meaning and connection, just like things that people may encounter at any time in their daily lives. Although this exhibition is planned and rehearsed in advance, randomness and serendipity are its main features. Its unintentional and purposeless nature coincides with Capuro's idea that art and life are similar to what he wants to convey.
Such works break the boundaries between art and life.
Atmosphere
Most of the works of the Fluxus show a grotesque (non-mainstream) atmosphere, which may be because the Fluxus not only adheres to the rebellious avant-garde spirit of Dadaism(George Maisonas and the "Fluxus" , 2012) but also has more to do with the cultural state of Germany and the United States at that time, and after World War II, some people successively became the counter-mainstream cultural group in the United States at that time, they attacked the seriousness of traditional high art.
Fluxus small experiment-practice
So I simulated a scene like this: bringing dinner into the museum and sitting in front of Leonardo da Vinci's painting (1498) 'The Last Supper' to eat with relish, as if joining the party of the characters in the painting, using the material that people eat every day in life, creating the absurd atmosphere of eating food in the museum, and time does not adopt the method of selecting reality like in the movie, and retains the original state of life. Hope expresses that life is part of art, and art exists in people's lives just like eating, sleeping, breathing.
Delicious,Wenzhuo Gou(2023.2)
Click here to watch my video:
Reference List:
artda (2009) 激浪派（Fluxus）, Foreign Art Archives. artda. Available at: https://www.artda.cn/yishusichaoguowai-c-1299.html (Accessed: March 4, 2023).
Deviant in Art: George Maisonas and the "Fluxus" (2012) Deviant in art: George Maisonas and the "Fluxus" - artistic thought - Chongzhen artist. Available at: https://www.trueart.com/news/312571.html (Accessed: March 4, 2023).
Fred W. McDarrah. 18 happenings in 6 parts, Reuben Gallery, New York, October 1959. 1959: Moma (no date) The Museum of Modern Art. Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/173010?association=associatedworks&page=1&parent_id=173008&sov_referrer=association (Accessed: March 4, 2023).
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