Little Jewel Cinema sapphire Season 19 may - 8 august 2007
by Joel fisher
It is privilege to have Alison Knowles return to Newcastle. She effortlessly wins the hearts of all those who attend her actions. Chance, change, surprise, joy are Alison’s words, but they also summarise what we are being given.
Alison Knowles is a founding member of Fluxus. A few of you have heard of Fluxus and know that it is some kind of art movement. Not many people know what Fluxus really is. Most things are defined from the outside in, circumscribed by boundaries and defined in opposition to something else. Fluxus is different because it needs to be defined from the inside out-; it is, in essence, activity generated rather than by theory.
It is not clear where Fluxus starts or where it stops. Early Fluxus combined different nationalities, cultural backgrounds, levels of intelligence, artistic temperaments, and status in the art world. All worked well together. It is neither modern nor postmodern. The spirit was slightly utopian but it promoted a pluralism early on. It was influential and continues to be, without following the pattern of normal influence. Fluxus has multiple origins, multiple descendants. It is collective and synthetic. Multi media may trace its origins to Fluxus, as well as conceptual art, performance, installation, and much else. But its offspring are not always Fluxus.
Instead of trying to come up with a definition of Fluxus, what if we look to the effect it has on people? Fluxus gives those who discover it a sense of freedom. Fluxus is affectionate, playful, loose, international, and people-orientated instead of property-orientated. It makes use of simple props and methods, and largely because of this it, is not intimidating. It is an art movement where some of the original members never studied art yet still felt that there could be a place for them. There was.
Hannah Higgins sees in Fluxus a model for educational process, and if her idea catches on it may revolutionise all levels of education. There is a way that Fluxus allows someone involved to actually create knowledge. It is not about being told something; it is more often about discovering the difference between our world and the way we are being told that things are. Alison Knowles has been the quiet spirit helping to shape not only the character of Fluxus but also its potential. Fluxus may be an achievement but it is also a living tool.
At the heart of Fluxus is time. During the nearly a half century of its existence Fluxus has maintained a curiously formal approach to structure, and an even more curious relationship to time. Fluxus time is very insistent, rule based, yet not coercive. The scarcity of coercive elements in Fluxus results is a contagious sense of security.
At the heart of this activity is the valuing of community: sharing; mutual acceptance; cooking and eating together; affection for one’s own history and for those who once shared their gentle spirit with our younger selves. There is spontaneous use of what is available. Event performances are often restaged and in memory and homage, but the word re-enactment would be misleading because each time it is real, not image.
This is no accident that both of our events in Newcastle have some relationship with water. Water has an inherent sense of time. Alan Bowman’s performance of Zyklus is more than a tender memorial to a friend who is no longer here, a memory of the past as a kind of physical evaporation or spillage. Zyklus, like all Fluxus events, is always completely contemporary. Alison Knowles points out that make a salad (a classic Fluxus event) has been done over and over for 40 years and it never once was repeated.
Linguistics, among other disciplines, distinguishes of two different kinds of time, synchronic (all at once, like a lake or the ocean) and diachronic (through time, like drips, flow or history). There are cases in which the confusion of these two complementary approaches (i.e. synchronic or diachronic) can turn otherwise clarity into a muddle. Politics and anthropology are good examples. In the history of words the distinction may be clearest. Language both is complete at every moment in time, and it also flows, drifts or changes. One of Saussure’s disciples said that not keeping these two aspects distinct can be like painting a portrait from photos taken at different times - combining the mouth of a baby with the beard of the adult and the wrinkles of an old man. A normal portrait is in synchronic time, complete in the moment. A portrait in diachronic time may be appealing to someone attracted to Fluxus. Alison Knowles’ work is both residual and linear, both synchronic and diachronic, or in Alison’s distinction she uses Chronos time and Aeon time.
Alison will spend the day and evening of May 19 sewing garments together into a long line, which will flow out onto the street and beyond. This line will synthesise many interesting histories because everyone has been invited to bring clothing and soft objects to be incorporated into the work. During exactly the same period Alan Bowman will perform his Zyklus river water performance. In contrast to Alison’s line, his is a day of circling and entropy. In ancient times the sun was used to measure time during the day, but sundials were of no use after dark. People from many different cultures came up with the same solution: dripping water to mark the hours. The time was read not by measuring what was gone but by measuring the level of the remaining water. The ancient Greeks called their water clocks "klepsydra" ("water thief"), which comes from "kleptein" ("to steal") and "hydÿr" ("water"). In Alan’s performance it is time that steals the water, lost throughout the day by evaporation and spillage. In ancient Greece political speeches were timed with clepsydra, the dripping water clock - when the water was gone, the oration was over. Perhaps Alan’s piece will also be the measure of Alison’s sutra, bringing two forms of measurement together. At the very least his performance will measure itself.
Alan and Alison are in Newcastle through the generosity of Waygood. As we consider Fluxus and Waygood together we can see many shared aspirations: both are activity generated, adaptable, affectionate, playful, loose, international, people-orientated and indomitable. Both are inclusive. If you are lucky enough to experience this Fluxus event you are instantly part of the Waygood family. And you are sure to be welcome.
Joel Fisher
Director, Gallery North, Northumbria University
Back to programme