January 30, 2006

Visible Language 39.3 (2005). Special Issue: Fluxus and Legacy, Part I.

Guest editors Ken Friedman and Owen F. Smith explain the rationale for the special issue: "Today, Fluxus enjoys a problematic fame. Fluxus is well known -- at least the name Fluxus is. At the same time, the central ideas and issues of Fluxus are overshadowed by a multiplicity of misleading or one-sided interpretations" (214).

Owen F. Smith, "Teaching and Learning about Fluxus," (218-235). A straight historical approach to Fluxus isn't as enriching as having the students participate in and create Fluxus-like work. Doing it means getting it.

Bertrand Clavez, "Fluxus--refernce or paradigm for young contemporary artists?" (236-247). Fluxus so changed the paradigms of art that current art practices are not a rehashing of, but rather a communion with the "absolutely timeless" process that is Fluxus.

"Fluxkids" (248-277). There's a letter exchange between Jackson Mac Low's children, Clarinda and Mordecai-Mark, that proves a fairly interesting read.

Ina Blom, "Fluxus Futures: Ben Vautier's signature acts and the historiography of the avant-garde," (278-307). A good framing of Ben Vautier's work, but I prefer to play around here.

The Editors, "History, Historiography and Legacy," (318-319). Refer to Clavez's argument.

In one of his letters, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low questions George Maciunas' successful branding of Fluxus: "In so far as Fluxus was about art in the moment and about opposing the dead hand of the academy and museums (my employers, of course*), creating a brand that fixed a label on a particular moment of artistic creativity seems directly counter to the idea of Fluxus" (269). And special issues like this one perpetuate the Fluxus brand, and hopefully generate interest in the work itself.
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*Mordecai-Mark Mac Low is an astrophysicist.