A Revolution Against Artistic Tyranny

Fluxus was more than a movement; it was a revolution, a new approach to art, against the constraining standards of past traditional artists, to liberate art from the common perception of “sophistication” bestowed upon it by present-day people, derived from modern art museums. These “institutionalized prisons” only intensified this image of art by dividing works into different sections such that each one was comprised of those most subject-related, followed by a certain arrangement of objects and an implementation of a “no-touch” policy. However, if George Maciunas, the founder of the Fluxus movement, was to visit the “Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life” exhibit at the Grey Art Gallery at NYU, he would have been extremely disappointed and condemned the curators who orchestrated this “funeral” for Fluxus.

According to Maciunas, art was meant to be manipulated and applicable in society by challenging artistic expression and provoking various responses from people. Best exemplified by Yoko Ono’s “Painting to Be Stepped On,” a piece of canvas on the floor with its name literally denoting its purpose, Fluxus’ attitude was considered to be insulting and disrespecting to traditional art. Adding on to the anti-conformity was the distortion of every day objects, including the recordings of cacophonies of random sounds, a clock measuring length instead of time, a television set displaying altered electrical current, a strip of clear film continuously looping, etc. Individual sections were labeled to question broad life topics such as freedom and love.

Contrived from a manifesto, Fluxus’ concept was a combination of intermedia and fluidity because of the facilitation of intermedia currents in the process of promoting its form of art to all types of people, regardless of whether or not they process prior artistic knowledge. To grant future generations the privilege of experiencing Fluxus, an appropriate preservation method for Fluxus art pieces must be adopted. Though the issue is controversial and still remains a complete mystery, the Grey Art Gallery desecrated its legacy by following the traditional ways of art museums and failing to enable physical interactions between art and people.