Fluxus and after

A number of impulses have been in force to arrive at this particular constellation of images and objects. Over the past five years the Queensland Art Gallery has acquired a number of recent print portfolios and large-scale multiples whose production testifies to sustained interest in the visual innovations and intellectual disruptions of Marcel Duchamp and, later, of John Cage. In :ihi1:Ing activity has ben driven by the Gallery's y to draw atention to major developments in twentieth-century art practice. However, encouragement for specific representation of Fluxus-related material has come from outside Australia as well as from Brisbane and its environs. New areas of growth for the Collection have been stimulated by the professional and entrepreneurial support of both René Block in Berlin and Francesco Conz in Verona. In 1990 Block's print portfolio, The Readymade Boomerang, connected with his superb Biennale of Sydney of the same year, was recognised by our Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Anne Kirker, as an ideal means of representing contemporary international figures in the Gallery. Subsequently, René Block brought to our attention the Hommage a Arthur Kopcke compilation of images (a visual compendium of key individuals connected with Fluxus), and through him we were also able to secure Cage's Mozart Mix, a multiple which is as much a visual installation as a rich aural experience. Similarly, the publishing ventures of Francesco Conz have attracted keen interest, and in 1991 two portfolios by Alison Knowles, an original member of Fluxus, were generously gifted to augment the fledgling holdings of Fluxus-inspired material at the Queensland Art Gallery. Other material has come from the artists themselves, especially Knowles and Dick Higgins. In this field, Brisbane has also benefited enormously from the scholarship and enthusiasm of Dr •7 Nicholas Zurbrugg. He was the initiator of three exhibitions - 'Visual Poetics' (Museum of Contemporary Art, 1989), 'FLUXUS!' (Institute of Modern Art, 1990) and 'Henri Chopin' (Queensland College of Art Gallery, Griffith University, 1992). He has also been a creative influence in the current project. Likewise, we are indebted to Malcolm Enright for bending the rules in the design of this publication, ensuring that, as a proto-Fluxus product, it lives on independently from the I exhibition. Through his efforts, CPI Paper, Queensland, has generously donated the paper for a this catalogue and Platypus Graphics has contributed aspects of the printing component. 'FLUXUS and after...' implies a territory beyond the origins of the movement in the 1960s and cc emphasises its global orientation. What began as a collection-driven exhibition has gathered momentum and broadened its focus to situate leading Brisbane-based artists (especially Robert MacPherson) and other Australian artists within the context of the Fluxus phenomenon. From the private holdings of MacPherson, Madonna Staunton, Malcolm Enright and Peter Tyndall, hitherto unexhibited works have been lent especially for the exhibition. This material augments imagery by these artists from the Gallery's holdings in a manner particularly pertinent to the spirit of Fluxus, and we greatly appreciate their support and interest. In addition, the Queensland Art Gallery is indebted to Noreen Grahame for lending Something Else Press material and to the poet Richard Tipping for the loan of items which infuse visual language with an engaging discontent. What inevitably emerges from an enterprise of this kind is the realisation that the practice in our art museums of segregating collections according to media and traditional classifying methods constantly needs review. Fluxus is about 'intermedia' and the experimental, interdisciplinary flow of ideas across the visual arts, music, theatre, film, design, poetry, literature - a flow of ideas both imbued with serious humour and inseparable from the world at large. Doug Hall Director Queensland Art Gallery