Fluxus: 

an art movement defined by 

obscure boundaries

    Why the fluxiness project? (click Where for more Fluxus examples)

It’s a set of questions as much as anything else.

Is it that difficult to be ‘An Artist’, does one have to be touched by a magic power to produce a work of art? No?

Can anyone do it then?

Is art only ‘art’ if it’s in a frame? In a gallery?

And is art ‘art’ if whoever’s looking at it doesn’t know that’s what it’s supposed to be? If the person looking at a thing doesn’t view herself as a person observing a work of art, then what does that make the object viewed? Is it still art if it’s happened upon?

If it’s ‘undisclosed’? Does it still remain a piece of art even when it’s got no sign, saying what it is, or who made it?

Then is everything art?

Surely not. Everything ‘beautiful’ then? Is everything beautiful ‘art’? 

But what’s ‘beautiful’?

These kind of questions, repeated endlessly in the twentieth and twenty-first century by artists, art critics and other, normal people, need to be asked.

Unfortunately, they’re also the same questions that can lead to people disappearing up their own arses.

In Early to Mid Sixties New York, The Fluxus Group created art that was accessible, affordable,and could be produced by anyone at all, with only the simplest of instructions.

What you see on these pages is a re-examination of one particular work – ‘Spacial Poem no. 1’ by Mieko Shiomi, an attempt to understand the nature of the artwork by re-presenting it, using the tools available to us now.

Shiomi's original instruction;
     
     'Write a word or words on the enclosed card   
      and place it somewhere. Please tell me the      
      word and the place, which will be edited on    
      the world map.'                                                         

was sent to family, colleagues and friends of the artist. 

This, in the fluxiness project, has evolved into a downloadable card, with suggested words and space for creation, using volunteers from all over the world, spreading words, a movement of language in space, and presenting them through written documentation, digital photography scanned images and e-mail.

Originally a project for a course on Contemporary performance and live art, there is no reason that the project should stop.

(c) 2003 Anna Pickard and Lee Stewart 

If you go to Pickard/Stewart site click on the word "Where?" at the top of the page and click on the examples of sample fluxus projects, here's one example from the pages:

Michelle - thepopsiclestand.blogspot.com

• "love me" - posted on a post of the stairway of our apartment building
   
• "Please do not feed the horses. Thank you" - stuck to the front of the Pepsi machine at the Alaska Ferry Terminal on Bellingham Bay, in the Fairhaven district of B'ham
   
• "This is beautiful" - pasted to the railing at the ferry terminal overlooking the view of B'ham bay, which really IS beautiful
   
• "This is beautiful" - stuck to the lapel of the jacket I was wearing at the time by my wonderfully sweet husband :)
   
• "this way up ^" - stuck on a sign next to the door at the ferry terminal that had a large arrow pointing -> to the entrance
   
• "i made this" - pinned to the bottom of a poster advertising for my husband's local TV show (which he has made, pretty much on his own). The poster is on the bulletin board at the local organic food co-op store.
   
• "This is wet" - on the pay phone outside the food co-op.
   
• "This is beautiful" - staple-gunned to a slightly rotten apple, which had been hollowed out to make a bong/pipe. It had been discarded in the co-op parking lot.
   
• "This is wet" - on top of the garbage can at Diego's mexican fast food restaurant
   
• "This is beautiful" - stuck to the back of a baby high chair at Diego's
   
• "This is beautiful" - laid on the body of a decaying rat on my walk to work this morning. I've been watching the rat's process of decay every day, from rat into part of the earth, and it happens much more quickly than I'd thought. This planet really is beautiful.
   
• "This is beautiful" - stuck to the 25 mph sign near the entrance to Western Washington Univ.
   
• "maple tree" - stuck to the no parking sign near the entrance to WWU, just past the 25 mph sign
  
       
  
   

  Fluxus Redux  at ART6 GALLERY JULY !st, 2005

  Jimmy's Flux 1968

  This just in.......
  
  
  http://www.fluxusheidelberg.org/publications.html 
  

From  http://www.fluxus.org/

Almost all of you have failed to recognize three obvious things about Fluxus--about the Fluxus you helped create!

Fluxus is more than Art. It's bigger than that. To confine it to being understood as being primarily a phenomenon in the realm of art is to let it die. 
Fluxus can still be a vibrant and energetic force. By refusing or failing to recognize this for the last 20 years, you have been letting Fluxus die. 
Fluxus is bigger than you. Fluxus is bigger than the initial group or Fluxers, it's bigger than Maciunas. You guys didn't finish off or "complete" the Fluxus project, you just got it started! Many others have come to Fluxus with new Fluxus ideas and projects, and many of you haven't even bothered to notice. By confining Fluxus to yourselves, you are letting it die. 

From  http://www.slonet.org/~tsulaiti/fluxus.html

on Marciunas

George was creature of gastronomic 
habit. He loved to eat thawed frozen
strawberries and cottage cheese. 
He always purchased the same brand
and glued together the spent containers 
to make huge wall like partitions.He
also couldn't resist a bargain. He once 
spent several months eating goose liver
pate, three meals a day since he got 
a case load for such a good price.

Jimmy's Tango Fluxus project
 

Copyright Jimmy Warner, 2007