hi alen i saw it on fluxlist so it is going through. bests, c xx
Alan Bowman wrote:
>
> Allen Bukoff has asked me to forward this to all. I request that you all
> read it and give it just consideration.
> Allen, in my opinion, has had more to offer on the 'Fluxus' front than
> many in recent years. Wether the "F" word matters or not is one thing,
> Allen
> and Fluxus Midwest has/have provided a valuable source of fluxus art
> amusement over the years, and before it goes...
> CHECK OUT http://fluxus.org and it's related sites.
>
> ab
>
> MESSAGE FOLLOWS
>
> Many are called, but none are now chosen.
>
> An open letter to 1st and 2nd generation Fluxus
>
> AYO
>
> Eric Andersen
>
> Henry Flynt
>
> Ken Friedman
>
> Geoff Hendricks
>
> Alison Knowles
>
> Larry Miller
>
> Yoko Ono
>
> Nam June Paik
>
> Ben Patterson
>
> Carolee Schneemann
>
> Ben Vautier
>
> Lamonte Young
>
> Emmet Williams
>
> -other names to be added to this list, as I distribute it.
>
> 6 January 2005
>
> Dear Fluxus,
>
> I was very fond of Emily Harvey. I miss her a lot. I am sorry I will not be
> there to help you honor and remember Emily Harvey tonight.
>
> Emily Harvey's passing marks a passing for me, too. I am walking away from
> Fluxus. It is, unfortunately, unnecessary to announce my departure: most
> of you don't even know me. You probably didn't even realize that I am a
> part of Fluxus and that I operate and host a number of websites that have
> promoted Fluxus for the last nine years. And none of you have ever
> acknowledged that I am, in fact, an active Fluxus artist who has pioneered
> new little directions and forged new sensibilities in Fluxus for more than
> 20 years now. That is why I am leaving.
>
> Twenty years ago I fell in love with Fluxus and the monumental creative
> revolutions you all initiated more than 40 years ago. You changed and
> expanded what creativity and knowing means. You changed Western culture.
> You changed the world. You ripped a new hole in the universe. And you did
> it with simple little ideas, games, objects, performances, and concepts. I
> will always admire your astonishing accomplishments. What you did was so
> big that no historian, writer, collector, or curator has ever gotten their
> arms around it satisfactorily.
>
> But an equally astonishing thing has been going on in Fluxus for the last
> twenty years. You have been letting Fluxus die.
>
> At one time you welcomed people to Fluxus. You recruited people to Fluxus.
> I know you have always been a contentious lot, but there was a time when the
> Fluxus door was open, you invited people in, and you made it grow. You
> embraced a "second wave" of Fluxus artists-e.g., Ken Friedman, Larry Miller.
> You encouraged new Fluxus work and new Fluxus projects. But as far as I can
> tell, this pretty much stopped 20 or more years ago (Friedman's Young Fluxus
> show in 1982 is the last time any of you sponsored a show of "new" Fluxus
> artists). What happened to you?
>
> Letting Fluxus die is a terrific and unnecessary shame and I place most of
> the blame on you (the people to whom this letter is addressed). I blame you
> individually and I blame you collectively. You have served Fluxus poorly
> during these last 20 years and you are letting Fluxus die. It didn't have
> to be this way. For the last 20 years, an increasing number of mostly
> young, bright, and talented people have been showing up and knocking on the
> Fluxus club house door . and almost all of you have either been too deaf or
> self-centered to hear them, or worse, you have continued to wring your hands
> over whether anyone should or could open the door (the issue of who has the
> "authority" to welcome and declare new Fluxus artists has been a convenient
> excuse). All you really had to do was open the door and show a little
> kindness. Why has that been so hard for all of you to do?
>
> During the last 20 years many different people have been "called" to Fluxus.
> I am one of those people. We learned about Fluxus in one way or another and
> were struck by lightning, had an epiphany.and generally felt we had found a
> place where we really belonged. We had hoped to find a home in Fluxus. And
> many of just started doing and being Fluxus in our own way.much like all of
> the original Fluxus folks had their own individual understanding and gifts
> for Fluxus activities. And one way or another as we have gotten stronger in
> our own Fluxus work, we have stepped forward and tried to share this work
> with you. Needing to find some acknowledgement and encouragement from the
> people who launched this Fluxus ship. We approached you with respect. We
> approached you as Fluxus authorities. We knocked on the door and you did
> not answer. The most that some of you have been able to do for a whole new
> generation of Fluxus artists is hand us some tedious book on Fluxus so we
> could "study up," or you smiled patronizingly and encouraged us to attend
> your next exhibition. You didn't even seem to consider that any of these
> new folks could take you and Fluxus some place new and exciting where it
> hadn't been before. And frankly, some of these new Fluxus folks have been
> doing more interesting work and more truly Fluxus work than many of you have
> been doing during the last 20 years.
>
> Many bright and talented people have not stayed long to knock, however.
> They heard the authoritative pronouncements that Fluxus was "dead" or
> "over." This was very confusing and discouraging-many of us could feel
> the spirit of Fluxus alive in ourselves and in our own work, so we couldn't
> understand how Fluxus could be dead. But you didn't answer the door and
> many eventually walked away. I have knocked longer than most-for more than
> 20 years now since I founded Fluxus Midwest in 1982. Dick Higgins and Emily
> Harvey (and Carolee Schneemann) were the only ones to acknowledge and
> encourage my own Fluxus work and experiments, but now Dick and now Emily are
> gone, I'm out in the cold, and I'm tired of knocking. So I am packing up my
> Fluxus bags, and taking my creativity and energies elsewhere.
>
> I am closing down the many internet websites I have constructed and hosted
> to promote and honor Fluxus: The Fluxus Portal, the Fluxus Homepage, the
> Emily Harvey Gallery, the Museum of the Sub-Conscious, the Dick Higgins
> memorial website, and numerous other webpages promoting the work of many
> original Fluxus artists. I doubt that many of you will notice. I have
> also walked away from FLUXLIST-the pioneering Fluxus email discussion group
> that I co-founded with Dick and Ken Friedman. FLUXLIST is another example
> of what I am talking about. Most of you could never even bother to
> subscribe. By not participating you have missed a great audience and a
> wonderful chance to discover and encourage many new Fluxus artists and to
> learn about their work. It would have given you back more energy than it
> would have taken.
>
> Almost all of you have failed to recognize three obvious things about
> Fluxus--about the Fluxus you helped create!
>
> 1.. 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.
> 2.. 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.
> 3.. 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.
>
> You all have spent so much time during the last 20 years trying to shape
> your legacy and the legacy of Fluxus, and few if any of you are satisfied
> with the results-the exhibitions, the collections, the books. Instead of
> trying to manage Old Fluxus you could have been leading a new group of
> Fluxus artists to explore new Fluxus directions and new Fluxus territory?
> Wouldn't it have been a lot more energizing and a lot more fun to fan new
> Fluxus flames than struggle with collectors who have catalogued your work
> but failed to capture your spirit or the scope of your actual
> accomplishments?
>
> I can only imagine that if George Maciunas were alive today he might have
> excommunicated you all by now and found a new and younger gang of Fluxus
> rabble rousers to continue his mischievousness. I imagine him cooking up
> guerrilla art activities and staging "terrorist" art attacks against some of
> the collectors and historians who demean him and you by saying Fluxus was no
> bigger than him and no bigger than you.
>
> Fluxus has the potential to be a bigger, more vibrant and creative force in
> the world today than even the project George Maciunas imagined. Certainly
> the world's need for the expanded creativity and the knowing that Fluxus
> provides is greater than ever. Because of the availability of more
> publications and catalogs documenting Fluxus work and because of the
> internet, more people know more about Fluxus than ever before. Fluxus is
> attracting more people than ever before-as much outside the art world as in.
> More people than ever before want to participate in and make their own
> contribution to Fluxus. But you-the founders, the brave pioneers-have
> turned your back on them. And you have turned your back on a marvelous
> opportunity to expand your legacy and help Fluxus continue.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Allen Bukoff, PhD
>
> Social Psychologist and Fluxus Artist
>
> Birmingham, Michigan
>
> visit the
> FREEFORMFREAKOUT ORGANISATION
> online!
> http://freeformfreakoutorganisation.net
