MoMA | Author: Jordan Carter

Posts by Jordan Carter

February 5, 2014 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions

The Poetry of Silence: Jackson Mac Low’s Drawing-Asymmetry

Posted by Jordan Carter, 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

Jackson Mac Low. Drawing-Asymmetry #5. 1961. Ink and colored ink on paper, 8 9/16 x 11 7/8″ (21.7 x 30.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift, 2008. © 2014 The Estate of Jackson Mac Low

If you visit MoMA’s exhibition There Will Never Be Silence: Scoring John Cage’s 4’33”, you will encounter a suite of enigmatic drawings by Fluxus-affiliated poet Jackson Mac Low, comprising swirling letters and seemingly nonsensical combinations of words. Although they seem like meaningless scribbles, the words are actually legible and meant to be read aloud.

July 29, 2013 | Fluxus, Intern Chronicles

Paper Planes: A Flight through Fluxus with Benjamin Patterson

Posted by Jordan Carter, 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

Benjamin Patterson. Audience members participating in Paper Piece (1960), performed during Fluxus Festival/Theatre Compositions/Street Compositions/Exhibits/Electronic Music, Hypokriterion Theater, Amsterdam, June 23, 1963. Gelatin silver print, 6 15/16 x 9 1/2″ (17.7 x 24.1 cm). Photographer: Oscar van Alphen. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift. Photo: Peter Butler

As the 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern in the Department of Drawings and Prints, I received a research grant to travel to Germany and survey a number of Fluxus-related exhibitions, some of which celebrated the movement’s 50th anniversary, as well as the 80th birthday of Fluxus artist Yoko Ono.

July 2, 2013 | Artists, Events & Programs

Embodying the Archive: Xaviera Simmons on Archive as Impetus (Not on View)

Posted by Jordan Carter, 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints Hanna Exel, Louise Bourgeois 12-Month Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

An Archive as Impetus performance in MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Photograph courtesy of Xaviera Simmons)

An Archive as Impetus (Not on View) performance in MoMA’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. Photograph by Martin Seck

Plenty of people think of museums, libraries, and archives as stagnant and apolitical places; sites where histories are not created, but simply preserved. In her performance Archive as Impetus (Not on View)—presented several times per week during the month of June as part of MoMA’s Artists Experiment initiative—artist Xaviera Simmons asked viewers to reconsider the role of the museum.

March 28, 2013 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus

Exhibiting Fluxus: Decomposition Contained in Wait Later This Will Be Nothing: Editions by Dieter Roth

Posted by Jordan Carter, 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

The title of the exhibition Wait Later This Will Be Nothing: Editions by Dieter Roth befits a number of the works on display that are slowly decomposing in front of spectators’ eyes. This post is dedicated to one particular pocket-sized perishable—Roth’s Pocket Room (Taschenzimmer) from MoMA’s Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection. In 1968, Dieter Roth—who challenged the boundaries of printmaking and publishing by integrating cheese, fruit, sausage, chocolate, and other organic materials into the process—released an unlimited edition comprising a banana slice on stamped paper tucked inside of a plastic container small enough to fit into the owner’s pocket.

January 30, 2013 | Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus

Exhibiting Fluxus: Mapping Hi Red Center in Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde

Posted by Jordan Carter, 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

Installation view of entrance to Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde at The Museum of Modern Art, November 19, 2012–February 25, 2013. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar

Fluxus currents flow throughout the exhibition Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, not only in the graphic scores discussed in my last blog post, but also in a section devoted to the experimental art collective Hi Red Center.

December 21, 2012 | Collection & Exhibitions

Exhibiting Fluxus: Keeping Score in Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde

Posted by Jordan Carter, 12-Month Fluxus Collection Intern, Department of Drawings and Prints

Installation view Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde

Installation view of “Sogetsu Art Center and Fluxus” display in Tokyo 1955–1970: A New Avant-Garde at The Museum of Modern Art, November 19, 2012–February 25, 2013. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar

This is the first post in a new blog series entitled Exhibiting Fluxus, showcasing works from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift that are currently on view.