The Fluxus Connection by Philip Willey - April 17th. 2011

Once upon a time, when I was scruffy young Jack Kerouac wannabe hitch-hiking around Europe, I found myself by the Berlin wall. The year was 1965 and I had just ascended an observation platform so that I could look over the wall into the Eastern bloc when a strange sight met my eyes. An elaborate electronic robot and a topless lady playing the cello. It was a cold day and some bemused Berliners were admiring the cellist’s determination. Her name, I discovered later, was Charlotte Moorman [1] and I was witnessing an early event by a group called Fluxus. Allan Kaprow is credited with coining the term Happening as early as 1957. Now it all comes under the heading of Performance.

Fluxus, as the name implies, was more of a loose collaboration than a formal movement. People like Dick Higgins, Ay-O, Nam Jun Paik, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht and Yoko Ono were all members at one time or another. George Maciunas formed the group in New York in 1961 but it really goes back to John Cage or perhaps to Dada and the Futurists.

I wasn’t directly involved with the group but I kept running into them in different places. They actually avoided major galleries, at least in the early days, preferring small venues or the street. They disliked the commercial art scene intensely. Sound familiar? Humour and irreverence were a big part of it. In fact they could be downright naughty. Now of course Nam Jun Paik’s TV installations are much in demand by museums and a Beuys felt suit will set you back about fifty thousand dollars at Sotheby’s. Cage’s Suite for Toy Piano and 4’33’’ have become classics. It’s strange to think they were once considered subversive.

Cage developed what he called ‘indeterminacy’. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living". [2]

All of this is a roundabout way of talking about the work of Lance Olsen and Jamie Drouin and attempting to put them into a historical context. Is there a Fluxus connection I wondered?  Cage’s teachings and innovative approach to composition have certainly been a big influence on a lot of people from Toru Takemitsu to Frank Zappa to Brian Eno. Lady Gaga too for all I know. John Cage opened the door, says Olsen, and we just sauntered through [3]

It may help to look at some of Olsen’s paintings (currently showing at Polychrome Gallery). In a video made by exhibit-v Olsen explains how his paintings begin with marks. Something happens on the surface which suggests a direction. More marks are followed by endless reworking until he decides to stop. It’s not a totally unconscious process because it involves a lot of decisions. Choices are made but the process itself becomes the objective. Olsen calls it ‘the mystery of the organic’. Each painting is a step in a life-long quest. A kind of mapping says Debora Alanna in her insightful review on exhibit-v. [4]

Drouin’s work ‘explores the subtleties of experience, with a specific interest in the way audio can dramatically alter perceptions of both physical and temporal space.’ [5] Jamie Drouin and Trudi Lynn Smith are currently showing an installation called ‘Conduit’ at Open Space which deserves its own review.

Drouin and Olsen team up occasionally ‘to explore their mutual interest in sound as an extension of physical experience, both for the audience and the artists. They use the live stage as a laboratory and continuous work in progress.

Employing a minimalist toolset and, intentionally, no computers, each performance remains distinct and unplanned, focusing on the real-time conversation between the two artists and the freshness of discovery with their respective tools: Drouin's compact suitcase modular, Olsen's amplified copper plates and toy acoustic guitar.’ [6]

So without being didactic or over analytical I hope it is fair to summarize thus:  Drouin and Olsen oblige us to consider the nature of sound and space and how those things affect us. There’s more of course but beyond this point I start to feel out of my depth. Still looking for a Fluxus connection I asked Lance how he sees his work in relation to John Cage and George Brecht. Here is his reply…

“It relates to Cage and Brecht only in that the use of all forms of found and field recording and micro sounds become grist for the mill. Audio works have been a part of the artistic lexicon as far back as Schwitters, M Duchamp and Friedrich Jurgensen, to name just 3 of hundreds. We have appropriated the form known currently as electroacoustic improv. because it works for us like choosing a particular set of colours or palette to work within, but I view my work as painting using sounds instead of paint. I also produce long form tone poems such as my current release on infrequency.org "war of the welles" these are all an important part of my practice.”

So perhaps the Fluxus connection is fairly tenuous. Never mind. Writing this has been an interesting exercise and I’ve learned a few things about sound art.

Fluxus itself survived the death of George Maciunas in 1978 albeit in somewhat diluted form. It has since adapted itself to the internet and the best info I’ve been able to find on current activities is here 
 http://www.fluxus.org/FLUXLIST/faq.htm

1] For more information see Women in Fluxus,  http://www.theawl.com/2010/09/you-can-put-your-top-back-on-now-rediscovering-the-women-of-fluxus-at-moma

2] http://www.belkin.ubc.ca/satellite/what-sound-what-silence

3] From an interview with Robert Amos in the Times Colonist. April 2^nd. 2011

4] Deborah Alanna exhibit-v.

5] http://www.drouinolsen.com/

6] www.jamiedrouin.com/performance.htmlhttp://www.jamiedrouin.com/performance.html