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#i want them to go outside and do the motor vehicle sundown (event)
oldmanffucker · 6 months
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thinking about artist Archie and Frenchie both pulling random fluxus/grapefruit prompts and doing them together. Then it becoming a weekly Revenge artist exercise.
Fluxus (experimental art movement) and Grapefruit (book by Yoko Ono that embodied Fluxus) - basically ‘event scores’ or prompts for (often) performance art. They were often absurd, often ephemeral or esoteric or inevitable. Examples:
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(tape piece iii and walking piece from Grapefruit by Yoko Ono George Brecht. Games and Puzzles (Name Kit) from Fluxkit. 1965, Fluxus Edition announced 1965 Page from Fluxus 1, containing ‘Flux Napkin’. 1964, Fluxus Edition announced 1966) (God I’m crying reading Grapefruit now. Being a pisces is hard work but someone’s gotta do it [PDF])
but anyway I can perfectly imagine Archie’s smile and laugh and body language while they do some of the sillier prompts, and Frenchie’s little smirk. It’s the smirk of pyramid scheme and authentic planks. The events that ask for silence, they do with permanent little smiles channeling the silliest and most earnest intentionality that you can’t NOT look at it and not be soppy about it.
Fluxus isn’t just prompts or events, it’s a whole movement. It’s about accessibility of art, it’s about making art constantly, it’s about being anti-art, it’s about subverting the capitalist ideas of art. But to me it’s a beautiful exercise in opening yourself to the vastness of art. Everything is and can be art, from the sound of silence to the crushing of stones to the using of a napkin to taking a walk with someone. It’s down to intention, it’s down to openness, It’s down to earnestness and curiosity. It’s down to being receptive and most importantly PLAYFULNESS. It’s about letting art be low stakes and letting art into every moment of your life. It’s about embodying art.
Plus, Izzy would love this bc that sub loves to follow a direction. Man is lost in subspace watching the stars and turning on and off his headlights and walking in someone else’s footsteps.
(If all of those examples sounded insane and esoteric, here are more links to Fluxus things. First publication (poetry! Music! Vehicles! John Cage! Yoko Ono! Nam June Paik!) ‘An Anthology of Chance Operations’, and archive of fluxus artbooks: fluxus 1, fluxkit, and flux year box 2)
Even more emotional thinking abt how in college, in his really intense performance art and physical exertion phase, Izzy loved Fluxus and the idea of art being that and following directions and experiencing something new from it.
Then he gets to know the crew eventually, And finds out they do this. And oh, he’s taken aback. Launched back to being 19, to grieving his sister and transitioning and experiencing lack of bodily autonomy and finding refuge in performance art. And fondness bubbles up so hot and acrid he has to step outside. After that he’s part of the weekly events. He and the crew relish the events that take the most time, like the walking piece. The crew is fascinated by his earnestness and tenacity when so often before they only saw perfection and persnicketiness.
[originally posted as a twt thread]
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