February 02, 2011

e x e r c i s e . a t . s t e n d h a l g a l l e r y



i was recently invited to participate in a fluxus happening at stendhal gallery in new york, celebrating founder george maciunas, in two 'fluxhibitions', Mapping Macuinas and Exercise. the first examines the 'learning machines' maciunas developed to explore the correlations between historical movements in art and history—elaborate charts and diagrams of chronological causality—and the second investigates the idea that the themes at the center of fluxus are long lived, widespread and based on a concision as open ended as it is exact.

among the artists represented in Exercise are george brecht, la monte young, chieko shiomi, yoko ono, ken friedman, hans richter, giussepe chiari, nam jun paik, and robert filliou, as well as works by contemporary artists john robert moore, narumi iyama and harry stendhal, and my friends nicole demby and david bernstein who will be performing a 'conversation' at the event.

for my part, i recently stumbled upon—which is to say accidentally reinvented—the event score, a core contribution of george brecht, a research chemist, artist, and close friend of allan kaprow, robert watts, and john cage in the late 1950's. often a set of concise instructions, the event score helped push the artwork away from the world of physical objects and into the realm of thought, action, and life. installed in Exercise are a series of drawings i composed over the summer. if you're in new york tonight, please stop by!


Mapping Macuinas and Exercise february 3rd, 6:00—9:00pm
STENDHAL GALLERY 545 West 20th Street New York, NY 10011 
for more information, including an essay by nicole, click here.

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