Fluxus and after

'In commonplace objects usually found on the street wish to make an expressive link with change as it is in nature and everything. By rolling out a cloth and folding it over, I use both accidental and chance methods finding a way to begin. I also use numbers from the I Ching or the phone book. I don't know starting out what a work will sound or look like and I go on faith. All the new means and processes of the 20th century are fascinating because they allow for fragmentation and mutability within the process. I letthe process take over within a formal structure. My pleasure is in trying to keep order while letting things open up and run ' A L Z . Z down! It's the same method in the performances. I 3LE 3 0 SWD Real information is gathered about the weather for instance; and then it is turned upside down Shuftk and inside out, sounds and projections are added and it appears, the whole piece as something new with a new existence. It comes out of silence for a time, shows itself in a very precise ordered fashion to its end phase, and returns again to silence. The materials in the performances change 74 sLff& M ! 4 . t.'.d although the mayan rainstick has become a stand-by as have the garbanzo beans.' f r At, Q.M & k / M J ' d ((-t.iJ Oh4 '1 #.1 6ut (Alison Knowles, artist statement, New York, 15 October 1992) Great Bear Fluxus events 1985 Portfolio of 16 sheets Letterpress and screenprint ed.2/50 34.5 x 48.5cm (each) Published by Editions Francesco Conz, Verona Gift of Francesco Conz, Verona 1991 #2 - These events appeared first as performances with Fluxus in the early 1960s. Later, they were printed as the first of the Great Bear Pamphlet series from Something Else Press. Several have become classics in the course of time, for example, N/yea Cream Piece (1962) in which the performers massage Nivea cream into their hands close to a microphone, or Newspaper Music (1965) in which a conductor directs a group of people reading aloud simultaneously from newspapers in different languages. Leone D'Oro 1977 Portfolio of 18 sheets Vantron Photo-screenprint ed.22/40 40 x 40cm (each) Published by Editions Francesco Conz, Verona ) L k e t Sp Gift of Francesco Conz, Verona 1991 In the frontispiece of this portfolio Knowles states: 'These prints Leone D'Oro are made by combining co a label from an orange crate and shoes found burned on the shore of the Bay of Naples byJasmine Ban. The label itself was found later on the same beach, while taking a walk on a Sunday morning. The photography of the shoes and shoe parts plus some found street items was done by myself. , 8 The parts of the label were selected, projected and drawn in. All the parts arrived to me by chanceLV CD Cc but from the same place'. ca