MoMA
Posts tagged ‘Fluxus’
Have a Cow, Man

Recently I explored a collection of mail art held by the MoMA Library and put together a small show titled Analog Network: Mail Art, 1960–1999. It’s on view in the Education and Research Building through January 5.

February 5, 2014  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions
The Poetry of Silence: Jackson Mac Low’s Drawing-Asymmetry

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

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
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. Original Photographer: Oscar van Alphen. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift. Photo: Peter Butler.

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.

Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Archives Open for Research!
Fluxus was founded as an international publishing company. Games, printed materials, and other multiples by various artists were united by George Maciunas’s unique design sensibility and brilliant typography. These qualities are visible here in this page from Maciunas’s ambitious 1962 prospectus, which lays out his grand plans for Fluxus. Silverman Fluxus Archives, V.F.B.

George Maciunas. Page from 1962 prospectus laying out his grand plans for Fluxus and exemplifying Fluxus’s unique design sensibility and brilliant typography. Silverman Fluxus Archives, V.F.B.

Are you intrigued by artists’ multiples? Engaged by innovative typography? Do you want to learn more about the roots of Conceptual and performative art today, and how artists’ innovation influences curatorial practice?

If so, then I am pleased to inform you that after several years, and more than a few surprises, the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Archives are open for research. Scholars will use the archives to study the history of Fluxus and its related artists. But while you might never use the archives, my work as an archivist still has an impact on your experience of Fluxus art at the Museum. The decisions made by myself and the other members of the Fluxus team affect what goes into the galleries, and how those objects are presented to the public.

When Fluxus collectors Gilbert and Lila Silverman donated their vast collection to MoMA in 2008, we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. Before it expanded into performance, Fluxus was founded as an international publishing company by George Maciunas. Games, printed materials, and other multiples by various artists were united by Maciunas’s unique design sensibility and brilliant typography. This amazing collection—the world’s largest—had been carefully built for decades by Fluxus scholar Jon Hendricks, who aimed to present a complete history of Fluxus: not just artworks, but documentation and books as well. MoMA decided to split the Silverman Collection into three parts: works of art to the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, for their facility at handling editions; documentation to the Museum Archives; and publications to the Library.

For the past two years, I’ve been the archivist responsible for processing the collection’s many wonderful manuscripts, notes, letters, and countless other documents into an organized research collection. That day has finally arrived—but getting here has been a long, strange journey.

Fluxus founder George Maciunas kept index cards which listed the works that were performed at concerts and festivals organized by him and his fellow artists. Along with photographs and recordings, written accounts such as these are the only records we have of such historical performances. Silverman Fluxus Archives, V.D.1.8.

George Maciunas kept index cards which listed the works that were performed at concerts and festivals organized by him and his fellow artists. Along with photographs and recordings, written accounts such as these are the only records we have of such historical performances. Silverman Fluxus Archives, V.D.1.8.

Fluxus thwarts all attempts at categorization. How can one distinguish “artwork” from “document,” when Fluxus artists actively strove to break down the border between art and life? How can we exhibit a work of performance art, when all that remains of it is a few photographs and written accounts? These are the sorts of documentary objects that researchers expect to find in archives, but as curators seek to display ephemeral and other dematerialized artworks, they are increasingly included in art exhibitions.

The image on the left is a lovely example of George Maciunas’s graphic design work, which is certainly a work of art. But as he used it as stationery – the letter to the right was written on its back in 1966 – it’s also an important archival document. Detail of Fluxshop stationery, with letter from George Maciunas to Betty Asher on verso, Silverman Fluxus Archives, V.A.1.1.

The image on the left is a lovely example of George Maciunas’s graphic design work, which is certainly a work of art, but as he used it as stationery—the letter to the right was written on its back in 1966—it’s also an important archival document. Detail of Fluxshop stationery, with letter from George Maciunas to Betty Asher on verso, Silverman Fluxus Archives, V.A.1.1.

Such quandaries are essential to understanding Fluxus. But they are particularly troublesome for an institution like MoMA, which is accustomed to maintaining separate departments for different types of objects. It’s no secret that MoMA didn’t collect many Fluxus works in the 1960s and 1970s, at the time of their creation, which means that the Silverman Collection fills a very significant gap. But in processing the archives, I came to understand our forebears’ reluctance: Fluxus is too fluid, too rebellious, too anti-institutional to enter an institution without a fight. It’s too many things at once.

That’s why myself and the other members of the Fluxus team quickly realized that we’d have to take a cue from Fluxus itself, and learn to be a little more fluid ourselves. We understood that sometimes artifacts need to be considered artworks, and other times works of art function like documents. It means that serious Fluxus researchers may need appointments with all three departments. But it also means that researching Fluxus will be as much of an adventure as processing it was.

To learn more about Fluxus, the Silverman Collection, or its processing, check out the finding aid online.

The Silverman Fluxus Archives can be consulted by appointment at the MoMA Archives reading room at MoMA QNS; open Mondays, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Appointments can be made through the Archives contact form.

August 15, 2012  |  Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus
Unpacking Fluxus: Conversing Around the Merch Table with Cory Arcangel

From left: Cory Arcangel in his Brooklyn studio; Cory Arcangel. Sailing (detail). 2010. Website. Image courtesy of Cory Arcangel. ©  2012 Cory Arcangel

This past January computer programmer, web designer, and sculptor Cory Arcangel participated in the exhibition “Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions, 1962–78,” by creating his own arrangement of a Fluxkit, the signature compilation of objects created by many Fluxus artists held in a black suitcase.

July 18, 2012  |  Artists, Fluxus
Unpacking Fluxus: The Unruly Stamp

A postage stamp is a small, government-issued square of paper adhered to mail in order to enable its circulation. An artist’s stamp, in the simplest of terms, is an object that is related to a postage stamp in either its form or content, but which does not necessarily help deliver a letter.

January 13, 2012  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus
Case Study: William Pope.L Interprets Fluxkit

Last month, artist William Pope.L spent a day at MoMA, exploring the collections of artists’ multiples on view in Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions, 1962–1978. While he was here, he produced the above performance video, which incorporates the Fluxkit to incredibly humorous effect.

December 9, 2011  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus
Case Study: Anna Ostoya Interprets Fluxkit

There was a hint of prank and play in the air at The Museum of Modern Art on November 1. Had you been walking in the Museum’s Marron Atrium that day, you may have gotten caught in a flurry of white cards descending from above.

October 21, 2011  |  Artists, Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus
Case Study: Mieko Shiomi Interprets Fluxkit

Fluxkit. 1965. Fluxus Edition announced 1964. The Museum of Modern Art. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift

The opening of Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions, 1962-1978 did not end on the evening of September 21, 2011. As part of the exhibition (on display in The Paul J Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries through January 16, 2012), six artists have been invited to participate in the exhibition’s organization by “unpacking” and arranging two Fluxkits—the signature compilation of objects by many Fluxus artists stored in black suitcases assembled by George Maciunas, a central organizer and participant. At different points throughout the run of the show, new artists will pull from the kits’ bounty—from posters to lentil beans—and have a hand in the making of this ever-evolving exhibition.

Of the line-up, which includes Alison Knowles, Dora Maurer, Anna Ostoya, Cory Arcangel, and William Pope.L, the first to put the kit to task is one who knows its form well: Mieko Shiomi. The Japanese-born composer and visual artist spent the early years of her career challenging her training as a classical musician. Exploring new possibilities of sound and composition, Shiomi famously made music with instruments’ unused parts. After rubbing shoulders with Tokyo-based artists who had spent time abroad in the early 1960s, including Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, and Toshi Ichiyanagi, Shiomi left her native Japan, and joined the growing contingent of Fluxus artists in New York. Of the works that Shiomi created while working with Maciunas in New York, three (Endless Box, Events and Games, and Water Music) are components of the kits on display.

Left: Mieko Shiomi’s arrangement of Fluxkit; right: Installation view of Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions 1962–1978

Although Shiomi’s stay with the Fluxus community in New York was short-lived, she has always overcome the limitations of her locality by embracing the mail service as a means for collaboration and artistic production. True to her ways, Shiomi sent the plans for her current arrangement for the Fluxkit to us from her home in Osaka via the U.S. postal service. Upon unfolding the long, scroll-like plan, my colleagues and I stood in admiration at the painstaking effort she put into the placement of each work. Shiomi’s masterful arrangement fills the cases entirely, and is ordered according to a system of grid-lines that distinguish each artist’s work from the next, while embedding them in a myriad of constellatory relations. While Shiomi certainly did not empty the Fluxkit suitcase entirely (and thus did prioritize certain works over others), the lyrical arrangement of the kit’s contents appears non-hierarchical—making one wonder what, in particular, Shiomi’s discerning hand adds to our understanding of the works before us.

Mieko Shiomi's plan for her arrangement of Fluxkit. © 2011 Mieko Shiomi

Mieko Shiomi. Piece for a Small Puddle from Events and Games. 1964. Fluxus Edition announced 1963. The Museum of Modern Art. The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Fluxus Collection Gift. © 2011 Mieko Shiomi

If meaning does not pop out blatantly before our eyes we may need to linger, look, and listen a little differently. We may even need to follow the artist’s lead. The instruction card shown on the right—from Shiomi’s Events and Games, which is on display in the kit—may shed some light on her approach to arranging the kit.

If nothing else, perhaps what we may glean from Shiomi’s display is the particular rhythm of its form—the way she peered upon the “puddle” of papers, cans, and cards. Like the event itself, Shiomi’s process concerns looking both intently and with multiple perspectives.

 

March 30, 2011  |  Collection & Exhibitions, Fluxus
Off the Shelf: Vintage Fluxus

This is the first post in the new series Off the Shelf, which explores unique MoMA publications from the Museum Archives.

From left: Front Cover: Yoko Ono. Montage incorporating photographic images of Rolf Jährling, Iain Macmillan, Nancy Mee, and Nori Sato. 1988. © 1988 by Yoko Ono. Back Cover: Milan Knizak. Drawing for catalogue cover. 1988. © 1988 by Milan Knizak.

Endpapers: Ben Vautier. Assholes Wallpaper. c. 1974.

During our intern walkthrough of the exhibition Staging Action: Performance in Photography since 1960, we learned about Yoko Ono and George Maciunas‘s Fluxus Wallpaper</a>, which is displayed along the third-floor hallway at the entrance to Staging Action and Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography.