52 Events 2002

Ken Friedman 52 Events 2002

Ken Friedman

Edition of 250 signed and numbered diaries.

This is number .

Published by Show and Tell Editions (Heart Fine Art Ltd.) 1 Royal Mile Mansions, 50 North Bridge Edinburgh EH1 1QN Scotland,

Tel/Fax: (+44) 131 225 8217 www.heartfineart.com mail@ heartfineart.com In August of 1966, looked George explained to me that these at an object I made. This was one of things ought to be written down. Th e the philosophical objects and form in which George suggested I write enactments I had been undertaking them was the event score. He wanted to since I was a boy in New London, publish the complete collection of my . I never had a name for events up to the time we met. I did not them, and I thought I was quite alone in call them events until 1966. George doing these kinds of things until I gave me the name, and showed me how encountered the books of Something to score these thoughts, actions, and Else Press. Those books led me to works so that others could realise them. Dick, and Dick sent me to . While George announced the publication of my collected event scores George liked the object and decided to several times, he never produced them. publish it. This was the Open and Shut I kept writing the scores. From 1966, Case, my first multiple, these scores were published and published in the early autumn of 1966. circulated in different forms and At our first meeting, George peppered editions, and exhibited. From 1973, me with questions. What did I do? What they also toured the world in exhibitions did I think? What was I planning? I did consisting entirely of my event scores. all sorts of things, things without names, things that jumped over the Paul Robertson has given me the boundaries between ideas and actions, opportunity to welcome the New Year between the manufacture of objects with a selection of events, bringing his and books, between philosophy and delightful sense of collaboration and a literature. I told him about them. deft typographer's hand to this diary. Maciunas listened for a while and We hope it takes you in one year and invited me to join Fluxus. I said yes. out the other.

Ken Friedman Torna Hällestad Fast Food Event

Go into a fast food restaurant. Order one 2n d example of every item on the menu. Line everything Wednesday January up in a row on the table.

Starting at one end of the row, begin eating the items one at a time. Eat each item before moving Tuesday2002 on to the next. Eat rapidly January and methodically until all the food is finished. Eat 1st as quickly as possible without eating too fast.

Eat neatly. Do not make a mess

1964, San Diego, California Sunday January 6th 3r d Thursday January

Friday 4thJanuary

Saturday January 5th Wednesday 9thJanuary

Green Street 7th Acquire a Japanese Monday folding scroll. Keep it in a January blank state. After a minimum of ten years, or on the death of the performer, inscribe the name of the performer, the date of acquisition and the date at the time of Tuesday January inscription. The performance 8th continues until the scroll is filled with inscriptions.

1959 Friday January 11th

Thursday 10thJanuary

Saturday January 12th

Sunday January13th Monday January 14th

Tuesday January The Judgment of Paris 15th Present three objects or three human images. Objects may be postage stamps, cans of food, books, architectural models, etc. Images may be reproductions of art works, pictures from magazines, photo panels, etc.

Beneath each image is a shelf or platform. Viewers choose the image Wednesday which they feel is most beautiful. January A golden apple is placed beneath 16th the chosen image.

1964 Saturday19th 18th January Friday January

Sunday January 20th

Thursday January 17th Tuesday22 n d January

Monday21st January

Wednesday Edison's Lighthouse January

Create a passage with facing mirrors. Place candles in front of 23 r d each mirror. Vary the nature and intensity of light by variations in the number and placement of candles.

1965 24 Thursdayt h January

Friday January 25 t h

Sunday 27 t h January Saturday January 26 t h Tuesday January Paper Architecture 29th A large sheet or several large sheets of paper are hung in a room. The sheets are inscribed with full-scale architectural features, such as doors, windows, or stairs, or with objects such as furniture, Monday lamps, books, etc. These January drawings may be used to imagine create or map an environment. The drawings 28th may create or map new features in an existing environment. They may mirror, double or reconstruct Wednesday existing features in situ or January elsewhere. If the drawings are to be permanent, they may be applied directly to a wall. 30th

1968-1972 Sunday Thursday February January 3r d 31st Saturday 2Februaryn d

Friday February1st Tuesday Wednesday Untitled Sculptural Event February February

A wooden plate, sheet or rod is fastened to a wall. From the 5th 6th wood form hang at least fifty strings, perhaps more, depending on the surface and length available. Participants fasten personal objects which they happen to have with them to the end of the string. Everyone is invited to take part until no empty strings remain. The summary of the different memories and associations of the objects fastened to the strings are fixed at one point in space and become a unit. 1968

Monday February 4th Thursday Friday Saturday February February February 7th 8th 9th

Sunday February 10th 11thMonday February

Water Table Tuesday12th February A full formal table setting with full service for four. All service is white porcelain or clear glass. All objects, utensils, etc., are filled with water. 1971

13thWednesday February Thursday February 14th

Friday February 15th Sunday February 17th Saturday February 16th Wednesday February 20th Monday February Flow System

Anyone may send an 18th object or a work of any kind to the exhibition. Everything received is displayed.

Any visitor to the exhibition may take away an object or work.

1972

T19thuesday February Sunday February 24 t h Saturday February 23 r d

Friday 22 Februaryn d

Thursday February 21 s t Wednesday February

Monday 27 t h February 25th

Tuesday February 26 t h

1982 Deck

Collect playing cards found on the street until a complete deck of found cards is assembled. Thursday February Sunday 28th 3Marchr d 2n d Saturday March Friday 1Marchs t Table Stack

Build a stack of tables. Each table should stand directly above and on top of the next table below.

1956, New London, Connecticut

Monday Tuesday Wednesday March March March 4th 5th 6th Friday Saturday Sunday March March March 8th 9th 10th

Thursday March 7th Wednesday Open and shut case March Make a box. 13th On the outside, print the words, “Open me.”

On the inside, Tuesday print the words “Shut me quick.” March December 1965, Chicago 12th

Monday March 11th Thursday March 14th Friday March 15th

Saturday March 16th

Sunday March 17th Mandatory Happening

A card printed: 1966, Mt. Carroll, Illinois You will decide to read this score or not to read it. When you have made your decision, the happening is over.

Monday March 18th

Tuesday March 19th

Wednesday March 20th Thursday March 21st

Friday March 22 n d 23 r d Saturday March Sunday March 24 t h 1968, San Francisco The Three Ages of Man An old table with three 26th containers. Powdered Tuesday milk in a container with March four legs or points touching the table. Sugar in a container with a solid base and one large external 27th point. Salt in a container with three legs or points. Wednesday March

Monday March 25th Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday March March March March 28th 29th 30th 31st Wednesday April 3r d

Alter to Borges

Tuesday 720 clocks are placed April in a room, each set to one of the minutes 2n d between 12:00 and 11:59.

1974 January Monday April 1st Thursday April 4th

Friday April 5th

Saturday April 6th

7th Sunday April Two Second Encore Tuesday April The performer walks out on stage, looking 9th at the audience with sincerity and passion.

With a Bronx accent, the performer cries out: “O-din! O-din!”

8th Monday April 10th Wednesday April

9 September 1989, Thursday Saturday April April 11th 12th 13th Friday April

14th Sunday April Monday April 15th Tuesday April 16th First Event

An announcement is made, proclaiming, “For his first event in (name the nation or city where the concert is taking place), (name Wednesday a friend of colleague April who was invited to perform but who could not come) will stay in 17th (name the place where he or she is at the time of the performance).”

October 1989, Bergen, Norway Thursday April 18th

Friday 21 s t April Sunday 19th April

Saturday April 20th Monday April 22nd Wednesday April Long Ships Event

Performers enter from stage left and stage 24th right. Each stands at the far edge of the stage.

One shouts, “Hail, Einar!” Tuesday April The other replies, “Hail, Ragnar! 23rd

5 December 1989, Rotterdam Saturday April 27th

26th Friday April

Thursday 28th April Sunday 25th April Wednesday Monday May April 29th 1st

Tuesday April 30th

The Last Days of Pompeii

A desk or table. A beautiful calendar or time planner is open on the desk.

The book is open to a date selected at random.

Written on the page with 3 p.m. circled: “Destroy Pompeii this afternoon.”

1985, New York Thursday May Sunday 2nd May 5th

Friday May 3rd Saturday May 4t h Shape Shifting Monday May 1. A bull, A salmon, A horse. 6th

2. A Norwegian, An Icelander, A Finn.

17 March 1991, Oslo

Tuesday Wednesday May May 7th 8th Saturday May 11th

Thursday May

9th Sunday May 12th

Friday May 10th Monday May Marching Band

A marching band 13th carries its instruments and sings or hums the music.

17 March 1991, Oslo

Tuesday May14th

Wednesday15th May Thursday May Sunday 16th May 19th

Friday 17thMay Saturday May 18th Tone Hammer

A small, square platform on a floor. The first layer Wednesday May is a square of rubber or foam to protect the floor. Monday A sheet of plywood is May 22nd placed on the rubber to distribute the load. On top of the plywood is a 20th pedestal made of a course or several courses of bricks. On top of the pedestal is a square block of solid iron, lead, or wood.

A large sledge-hammer or wooden mallet is placed Tuesday next to the platform. May Instructions are posted on the wall. The instructions read: “Hit the block once 21st every fifteen seconds up to 180 times.”

1991, Oslo Thursday Sunday May May 23 r d 26th 24 t h Friday May Saturday May25 t h March of the Toy Soldiers

Mount domestic objects on poles. Organise them in 1963 relation to one another. Imagine a battle.

Wednesday Monday May May 27th 29th Tuesday May 28th Friday May 31 s t

Sunday Thursday June May 2n d 30th 1st Saturday June Monday Tuesday Wednesday June June June 3r d 4t h 5th

Holy Bird of Finland July 1991, Helsinki

An installation or book presenting images, objects, stories, riddles, puzzles, and jokes having to do with cuckoos and cuckoo lore. Contents of either a book or installation can include: pictures of cuckoos, legends about cuckoos, recipes for cooking cuckoos (roast cuckoo, baked cuckoo, cuckoo soup, cuckoo salad sandwich, etc.), encyclopedia entries, ethological descriptions of cuckoo behaviour, descriptions of how people can emulate cuckoo mating rites, dictionary definitions, the word cuckoo translated into different languages, etc.

An installation can also present: cuckoo clocks, stuffed cuckoos, cuckoo toys, a diorama showing nesting cuckoos in the natural environment, videotapes or films of live cuckoos, a recording of the sound of the cuckoo in the forest. Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday June June June June

6th 7th 8th 9th Renter’s Orchestra Tuesday June An orchestra of instruments owned by 11th people who cannot play them.

July 1991, Oslo

Wednesday June 12th

Monday10th June Sunday June 16th

Saturday 14thFriday June June 15th

Thursday June 13th Monday June 17th

Fluxus Balance Piece

A bowl of 19th water is Wednesday June placed on one side of a balance. The bowl is filled with water exactly equal in weight to whatever is on the other side of the balance. July 1991, Oslo Tuesday June 18th Thursday June 20th

22nd Saturday June Friday June 21st

Sunday 23rd June Wednesday 26th June

Monday June 24 t h

Adonis meets Aeschylus

Two people, pictures, or images are contrasted. 25 t h Tuesday One is charming, June graceful, and elegant. The other is quirky, ironic, and unusual.

14 August 1991, Seattle, Washington and Hanover, New Hampshire Saturday June 29th

Sunday June Thursday June 30th 27th

Friday June 28th Tuesday Wednesday July 2n d 3rdJuly

Monday July 1st Precinct

A rough slab, cube or table of natural stone or wood.

On the table, people may place hand-made models or objects in wood or clay.

25 August 1991, Minneapolis, Minnesota Saturday 6t h July

Friday July 5th Sunday July 7th

Thursday 4thJuly Exhibition Monday July Arrange an exhibition where a curtain conceals each work of art. Next to the curtain is posted 8th the description of the piece. On payment of a fee, an attendant pulls the curtain aside to display the work. After the viewer has finished examining the work, the curtain is replaced. Tuesday July The fee may be the same for all works, or it may vary according to size of work, fame of work, market value of work, insurance 9th value of work, etc.

One may also vary the fee charged according to the length of time that the curtain is held Wednesday open. July 29 September 1991, Oslo 10th Saturday July Thursday July 11th 13th

Sunday July Friday July 14th 12th Monday July 15th Wednesday July

The Secrets of Nature 17th

Two metal balls.

Both are made of the same metal, either lead or iron.

One weighs ten times as much as the other.

Tuesday July 16th Saturday July Thursday July 18th 20th Sunday Friday July July 19th 21st Tuesday July Wednesday July 23rd 24th

Diving Event

Nine holes in the ice. The shaman dives from one to the next, in and out, in and out, through all the holes.

29 December 1991

Monday July 22nd Saturday Sunday Thursday Friday July July July July 25 t h 26th 27th 28th New Shoes Dance Theatre Monday July Organise a short dance piece. 29th Create choreography to be danced to any normal classical or modern music. Rehearse in traditional Tuesday dance costume or leotards. July For the public presentation of this work, clothing will be the same as at the rehearsal with one change: 30th all performers - men and women both - will dance in new boots or new men’s black dress shoes. Wednesday If the dance is performed July more than once, use completely new shoes or boots for every performance. 31st 12 November 1991, Oslo Thursday August 1s t Friday August 2nd Sunday Saturday August August 3rd 4t h Stage Fright Event

The performer wears a costume that covers almost all of the body from the top of the head to the knees. Only the legs from the knees down will be visible. The audience may not see the performer. The performer may not see Monday August the audience. 5th

A time span is selected for the event. The performer walks out on stage or into the hall, moving about slowly during the allocated time. At the end of the Tuesday time, two or three cast members come 6th August out to guide the performer off.

Music may be played, or the event may take place in silence.

This may be performed as a solo. Wednesday Several or many performers who will August slowly bump into each other or the audience as they move through the 7th piece may perform it.

21 November 1991, Oslo Sunday August 11th Friday August

Thursday 9th August 8th

Saturday August 10th Wednesday Selection Event August

Before the performance, the director selects music and a 14th kind of dancing. The cast is invited to conceive a dance they will perform to the music after Tuesday only one hearing. The music is August played once for the cast. No rehearsal takes place. 13th At the time of the performance, a large screen of paper or cloth is stretched across the stage so that when performers stand behind it, only their calves and feet are visible.

Male performers stand behind the screen.A female performer is selected.The female performer selects her dance partner by choosing the pair of feet that Monday she likes best.The music is August played.The two performers dance 12th 22 November 1991, Oslo Saturday August 17th Friday August 16th

Sunday Thursday August August 15th 18th 18 November 1991, Oslo Texas Foot Event Monday August A bath tub is set up on stage and filled with water. 19th The performer arrives on stage wearing blue jeans, a cowboy hat, and boots.

The performer gets into the tub and takes Wednesday a bath. August 21 s t Tuesday August 20th Thursday August 22nd

Saturday August Friday August 24th

Sunday 23rd August 25 t h Monday August Tuesday August 27th 26th 28th Wednesday August

Beard Event

Grow a beard for a while.

Look at it.

Shave it off.

31 March - 14 April 1992, 29th Thursday Saturday August September 1s t

Sunday August 31st

Friday August 30th Do-It-Yourself Monument 1967

Build a monument. Wednesday September

Monday September 4t h 2n d

Tuesday September 3rd 5t h Thursday September Friday 6th September Saturday September 7th

Sunday September 8th Fluxus is dead

Send someone the smallest sculpture you own.

1989

Tuesday September 10th Monday Wednesday September September 9th 11th Friday September

Saturday September

Thursday September 14th

12th Sunday 15th September Tuesday September Magic Event #2 Walk on stage with a 17th sledge hammer, an egg, and a small tape recorder. Place the egg on one side of the Monday stage. Place the tape 16th September recorder on the opposite side of the stage. Turn the recorder on in the playback mode. Walk back to the egg. Pick up the hammer. Raise it high. Wait 30 seconds and smash Wednesday the egg. Stand and September wait.

After 15 seconds, the tape recorder plays the 18th noise of a chicken.

1993 Sunday 22nd September

Thursday September 19th Friday September

Saturday 20th September 21st 23 r d Monday September Tuesday September 24th

1994 A Whispered History

Take a plain wooden table with no metal or plastic surfaces. Unpainted wood is best. Wednesday September Get two ordinary shoes.

Place the shoes on the table.

Fill the left shoe with butter. 25 t h

Fill the right shoe with salt. Thursday September 26th

Sunday Friday September September 27th 29th

Saturday September 28th Tuesday October Tristan + Isolde 1992 A toy airplane 1s t + a wooden goose.

Monday 30thSeptember

2nd Wednesday October Friday October 4t h

Saturday October 5t h Thursday October 3rd Sunday October 6t h Tuesday October 8th Monday October

7th Wednesday Tavern October

Assemble a collection of small liquor bottles. 9th

Construct a rectangular wooden box. Set a strip of wood so that the rectangular box has two areas: one square and a rectangle half the size of the square.

Set most of the bottles in the square area. Set one special bottle in the smaller area.

Mix a load of plaster of Paris sufficient to fill the box to the edge. Fill the box so that the plaster sets around the bottles. 1966 Thursday October 10th Friday October

Saturday 11th October 12th

Sunday 13th October White Bar 1964

A bar or tavern in a simple room. The room is either plain, light wood or Monday wood painted white. October

Only clear liquors are Tuesday served. The liquors are 14th October lined up on the bar oron shelves behind the bar. There are many rows of 15th clean glasses.

The bar itself is a plain wooden table or a long board.On the bar, there is a bowl of limes.

Wednesday October 16th Thursday Friday October October 17th 18th

Saturday Sunday October October 19th 20th Monday The History of October Fluxus 21st Take a plain wooden table, no metal or plastic surfaces. Paint the table white. Use white-wash or a flat white paint. Prepare a dull surface, not glossy. Place two black shoes Tuesday on the table. October If you use a small table, place the shoes 22nd slightly off centre toward a corner. If you use a large table, place the shoes closer to the corner than to the centre. Fill the left shoe with white table sugar. Wednesday Fill the right shoe with October sea salt. 1993 23 r d Thursday October 24 t h

Friday October 25 t h Saturday October26 t h

Sunday October27th Scrub Piece

Go to a public monument Monday on the first day of Spring. October Clean it thoroughly. No announcement is 28th necessary. 1956

Wednesday October 30th 29th Tuesday October Friday November Sunday 1s t November

Thursday 3rd 31stOctober

2nd Saturday November 1987 - Helsinki Rational Music

Take the score of a symphony. Organise the symphony in such a way that all notes of any given kind are played consecutively. For example, take all instances of the note B#. Then, assemble all B# notes in series by time 4th Monday value, so that whole notes, half notes, November quarter notes, etc., are played consecutively. The entire series is performed in sequence. You may score the piece so that work is equally divided Tuesday among all instruments, or you may use November another rational scoring technique, for example, all violins represented by one violin and so on through all groups of 5th instruments. Other techniques might permit the entire performance to be realised on piano; notes distributed by section — oboes take Ab, bassoons take Wednesday A, bass trombones take A#, and so on; November or simple rotation of notes through all performers until the piece is complete. 6th Refinements may be considered. Sunday November 10th

Saturday November 9th

Friday November

Thursday 8th November 7th Monday November 11th

Tuesday November 17 May 1992, Oslo Folk Dance 12th The dancers perform a traditional folk dance while dancing on stilts.

If there are several dancers Wednesday and some feel avant-garde, November they may use stilts of a different height than the other dancers. 13th Thursday November 14th Friday November 15th

Sunday November 16th

Saturday November 17th Tuesday November Card Trace 19th Mail a series of cards during a journey or sequence of activities. The assembled set of cards becomes a map or chart of the passage through time or space. Wednesday 1958 November

Monday 20th November 18th Sunday November Friday November 24 t h 22nd

Saturday November 23rd Thursday November 21st 1992 Bird call

Make a telephone call to a bird. If Wednesday you do not know a bird who has a November telephone, make a telephone call in which you make bird noises. 27th

25thMonday November

Tuesday 26thNovember Friday November 29th

Thursday November 28th

Sunday December Saturday November 1st 30th Tønsberg Ship Monday December Get an old boat or a small, open ship without a deck. Paint the outside 2nd Prussian Blue. Paint the inside a deep, rich green.

Fill the boat with small, cubes of stone, 4 to 6 cm. on a side. The cubes can be any natural stone, cut rough. The cubes should not be trimmed or polished. The stones can either fill the boat to cover the bottom completely or be placed in a pile or haug. 1992 Wednesday December Tuesday December 4th 3rd Thursday Saturday Sunday December December December 5t h 7th 8th Friday December 6th Magic Trick #4 1993

Walk on stage with a phonograph record, a large hat, a cloth sack and assorted tools: hammer, file, clippers, shears and a hacksaw. Break the record. Cut it up. File it, saw it, clip it into small pieces. Place the pieces in the sack. Smash the sack with the hammer.

Place the sack in the hat. Hold the hat up. Then place it on a table. Wave hands over the hat. The hat begins to play music.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday December December December 9th 10th 11th 12th 14th 15th Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday December December December December Wednesday December 18th Monday December Tuesday 16th December 17th

Untitled Card Event

Send a postcard to someone every day. Each card in the sequence should transmit one word or letter. The series of cards should spell out a word or a message.

1957 Saturday December 21st

Thursday December 19th

Friday December 22nd 20th Sunday December Wednesday December

Christmas Tree Event 25 t h Take a Christmas tree into an all-night restaurant. Place the Tuesday tree in a seat next to December you. Order two cups of coffee, placing one in front of the tree. Sit 24 t h with the tree, drinking coffee and talking. After a while, depart, leaving the tree in its seat. As you leave, call out loudly to the tree: “So long, Herb. 23 r d Give my love to the wife and kids.” Monday December 1964 Friday December 27th

Saturday December 28th

Sunday December

Thursday 29th December 26th Monday December

30th Wednesday January1st

Tuesday 31stDecember 2003 Thursday 2n d January Saturday January

Friday Sunday January January 4t h 3r d 5th

In One Year and Out The Other

On New Year’s Eve, make a telephone call from one time zone to another so that you are conducting a conversation between people located in two years. Fast Food Event Diego. I hadn’t recalled the event in Swift, I moved into the classics. I mirrors and candles arranged in years. I wrote this version of the often read classical authors and vertical and rectangular patterns. This piece was a response to the score from her account. mythology in the reference section Candles were placed in candelabra growth of fast food restaurant of the public library. One of the first made from old bottles. Light chains. By the early 1960s, Green Street books I purchased for myself was a travelled between the two mirrors in American had such restaurant collection of classical myths, a narrow band roughly ten feet long, chains as Howard Johnson and The Green Street scroll came from a primarily Greek and Roman. I two feet wide, and three feet tall. De n n y ’ s, but the franchised take-out little Japanese shop in New London, bought it at a bookshop in Laguna Light spilled over to illuminate the restaurant typified by McDonald’s, Connecticut, where I first Beach on our first visit to California. room. The idea for this came from Burger King and Subway were not encountered Japanese artifacts, Greek mythology was an enormous something I heard about Th o m a s yet common. The area of San Diego including ink, scrolls, brushes and interest to me. The archetypal Edison when he was a youngster, where I lived had only a Southern other objects. I acquired the scroll in themes found in Greek mythology using mirrors to create enough light California hamburger chain named 1959. The performance is still in recur in literature, drama and art. to help a doctor see during Jack in the Box. progress with the original scroll. I While much of the mythological emergency surgery. There were a fair number of fast haven’t yet written my name in it. I material is clear, it is often disguised food and take-out places. Th e s e think the scroll is either at Henie and themes are borrowed and Paper Ar c h i t e c t u r e were often one-man hamburger Onstad Kunstsenter in Høvikodden, reworked. George Polti’s book, Th e stands or tiny diners with food No r w a y , or at the . Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, The first public presentation of this available on a take-out basis. In the I was never able to find anyone states that there are only thirty-six work was as part of my project in San Diego area, there were also a willing to take responsibility for basic plots in the entire history of the exhibition “ - Fluxus - number of small, family-owned taco accepting the scroll and carrying the drama. Many of these appear in the ” at Montgomery Ar t shops and pizza restaurants with a piece forward. my t h s . Ga l l e r y , Claremont College, take-out menu. The family-owned This piece was a doubled reworking. Claremont, California in May 1973. taco shops often had excellent The Judgement of Paris First, I took ordinary material Studio versions were constructed at Mexican cuisine. The food was artifacts, exploring their nature as the Fluxus West centre on home-made on the premises, along The first versions of this work objects in a highly material culture Divisadero Street in San Francisco. with such side dishes as guacamole, constructed between 1964 and 1968 by endowing them with the virtue of It has been executed as drawings or frijoles refritos and rice. consisted of forms or objects such actors. Then, I doubled the myth environments in diffe r e n t In the late 1960s or the 1970s, as postage stamps, cans of food, back on itself by dignifying them with environments since. Southern California got a fast-food books, architectural models, or the attributes of the original myth. This version of the score is based Mexican restaurant chain named furniture. Examples and variations Many events create a theatre of the on a note found in 1991 among my Taco Bell. While it wasn’t as good as were realised in San Diego, Los object. Objects act or participate in papers left in San Diego, California. the family-owned restaurants, the Angeles, Pasadena, and Ven t u r a , the action. The first version of this Part of the idea for this piece came food was tasty in those days and California, as well as in Mt. Carroll, event is such a project. from my mother. In our home in San there were a number of Taco Bell Illinois, and New Yor k . The later version turns the myth Diego, we had a wall with windows locations. Th e The second back on itself by using images of facing out on the boring view of a menu was version, built in women. The meaning of the piece ne i g h b o u r ’s wall and part of his small, and that Notes 1989 in Oslo, changes based on the choice of yard. She constructed sliding made it Norway consists image, the obvious or subtle nature screens over the window and relatively easy of objects or of the source, the character of the painted a bright, tropical garden to perform the Write some notes. images depicting model and the pose. This, too, is a scene on the screens. After a few Fast Food women. Th e s e statement on the character and years, it seemed as though the Ev e n t . included statues, ef fect of myth. garden view was the view from that I had forgotten about this piece until pictures from magazines, photo side of the house. a visit to Nancy McElroy in Au g u s t panels, and other explicit images. Ed i s o n ’ s Lighthouse 1991. She, her children, and I went The first book I remember reading Water Tab l e to a Taco Bell. While we were as a child was an edition of This piece was first realised in Mt. eating, she told them about how I Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. It Carroll, Illinois in November of 1965. This piece was created at the used to perform this event in San was a gift from my mother. From The piece used vertical, rectangular invitation of and John Lennon for their exhibition, “This is stack several on top of one another practice that had been central to my edition bears a simple label, much Not Here” at The Everson Museum. to make a tower three or four high or ex p e r i e n c e . like the Chicago original. The label is Yoko and John invited artists to to build models of multi-level cities. I a simple paper label and with large, create works involving water. Th i s started building table stacks then, Open and Shut Case black letters in a sans-serif typeface. was my work. and I’ve been doing it ever since. One variation on this piece was The original Water Table was In recent years, I’ve made the Tab l e The first version of this project was planned as an installation. For this executed and installed in the area Stack several times. On some constructed in December 1965, version of the piece, the score for guest artists. It was occasions, I’ve built it with diffe r e n t while I was at a meeting at the First reads: “Paint a room in a single reconstructed in 1974 at Veh i c l e , kinds of tables rather than stacking Unitarian Church of Chicago. I took co l o u r . Paint the door to the room Quebec, during a Ken Friedman copies of the same table. Once or a large matchbox that had been the same colour as the room. On solo exhibition. I reconstructed it a twice, I’ve built several stacks next filled with wooden kitchen matches. I the door, print the words, ‘Open’.” third time in Vienna for the exhibition to each other. covered the outside with paper and “On the inside wall directly opposite Fluxus Subjektiv at Galerie When I did the kinds of things that printed the words, “Open me” on the the door, printed the words ‘Shut Kr i n z i n g e r . The third reconstruction are now termed events or outside. On the inside, I printed the qu i c k ’ . ” is pictured in the special Fluxus installations, I didn’t think of them as words “Shut me quick.” issue of Kunstforum, where the work art. These events were an activity, In August of 1966, I was visiting Dick Mandatory Happening is misattributed to Daniel Spoerri events in the strictest sense of the Higgins in New York. I made because the menu pictured on the word. They were simply something I one of these boxes for him. He This event was first scored at table came from Restaurant Daniel. did. I had no explanation for them thought I ought to take it to George midnight on May 1, 1966. It was first Restaurant Daniel loaned us the and I didn’t offer one. It wasn’t until I Maciunas. It became my first performed at the same time. For the dishes and tableware for the began to work in the context of Fluxbox, The Open and Shut Case. first performance, the text was typed installation, and I used their menu Fluxus that I termed these projects The score to the box read: “Make a on a sheet of paper. I went around as a basis of a drawing placed on events. When Dick Higgins and box. On the outside, print the word, Shimer College, knocking my way the table. The restaurant had George Maciunas introduced me to ‘O p e n . ’ On the inside, printed the from door to door. When someone nothing to do with Daniel Spoerri. what is now termed intermedia, I words ‘Shut quick’.” The title of the answered, I handed him or her the The title Water Table alludes not accepted art as a reasonable frame piece was Open and Shut Case. pa p e r . only to the project itself, but within which to conceive and carry When I created the piece, it had This event was published by Fluxus, also to the idea of a water table in out my projects. hermeneutic connotations involving New York, 1966 as A Fl u x u s geological terms. I have been doing these kinds of a discussion that was under way at Mandatory Happening. George events throughout most of my life. the church meeting. The term also Maciunas designed a lovely label Table Stack I’ve been at it for nearly five decades has legal connotations. It’s a phrase with the famous image of Uncle no w , starting with my first events in often heard in films or theatre pieces Sam, pointing his finger outward at I was born in New London, 1956. I’ve continued to undertake about police or lawyers. George the person looking at him. The label Connecticut, in 1949. My family lived these projects in art, architecture, Maciunas played with the legal text read, “Fluxus Wants You … for in a huge old house with three design, and music along with implications of the phrase and a Mandatory Happening.” Inside, a stories and a basement. My father whatever else I was doing. prepared the label of the Fluxbox as simple card of heavy white paper and mother ran a school on the first It was when I began working in the a subpoena. bore the text. fl o o r . We lived on the second floor. context of Fluxus that I first thought The first version of the text was a There are no complete copies of The house was so big that we didn’t of events in the sense that I use the personal injunction, commanding the Ge o r g e ’ s edition known to exist. use the third floor. term today. Until then, I simply built reader to “Open me” and “Shut me Copies of George’s label are My sister and I were free to play things or realised ideas or made quick.” Later versions employ a available, along with some boxes with the equipment and toys in the models of things that interested me. simpler text reading “Open” and with the label attached. These boxes school in the evenings and on Many of them were acts or works “Shut quick.” have no card. In the 1990s, Peter weekends. The school was well that I repeated, much as I did after Barbara Moore made a new edition van Beveren published an edition of equipped with blocks and toys. Th e meeting the other Fluxus people. of George Maciunas’s Fluxus this in a simple version. It was like furniture fascinated me. There were When George Maciunas explained version a few years. Peter van the Rotterdam edition of the Open four large, square, sturdy tables with the event tradition to me, it gave a Beveren reprinted it in a 1990’s and Shut Case and it was much like thick, strong legs. It was possible to kind of theoretical organisation to a edition in Rotterdam. The Rotterdam the original Mandatory Happening. The Three Ages of Man in which the technology-mediated While the piece itself was Douglas, Tony Curtis, and Ernst world of cyberspace engages the unrealized, the score has travelled Borgnine. In the movie, Curtis The Sphinx of classical Greek human consciousness. This piece wi d e l y , in English and in translation. played a Viking slave who was - mythology was a terrible, winged speaks to the universal, everywhere- Over the years, I have seen a unknown to himself - a prince who creature with the head of a woman all-at-once nature of those notions. number of installations and had been captured by Vikings as a and the body of a lion. She In a sense, this piece addresses the exhibitions similar to the installation ba b y . besieged the city of Thebes after the ideas of many thinkers whose work described here. Several of these In the movie, he was chained in a murder of King Laios. The Sphinx engages the concept of time. Over were created by artists who had tide pool to be eaten by crabs or posed a riddle to anyone who the years, I created several pieces seen this score. An artist who drowned when the tide came in. A crossed her path. She ate those honouring Borges. If memory translated and exhibited my event sorceress who cast a wind spell to who could not answer her riddle. serves, one of these - Homage to scores created one such installation. blow the tides out protected him. As On his way from Corinth to Th e b e s , Borges - was created for the When I saw the installation, it part of the ceremony, the Curtis Oedipus met the Sphinx. She Coltejer Biennal in Medellin, seemed to me that he had forgotten character was required to call on challenged him with a famous riddle. Colombia in the early 1970s for a this specific work. Even so, he Odin for assistance. “What walks on four legs in the section organised by Jorge Glusberg continued to be influenced by the Meredith and I were talking about morning, two legs at noon, and three of the Centre for Art and way in which this piece addresses the movie over dinner, and that legs in the evening?” Communication (CAYC) in Buenos the everywhere-all-at-once nature of scene suggested this event. Oedipus answered the riddle. Th e Aires. Glusberg showed another in ti m e . This piece was originally intended answer is: “a man.” Aman crawls on the exhibition Arte de Sistemas for performance in those areas four legs as a baby, walks upright as organised at the Museum of Modern Two Second Encore conquered by the Vikings. Paris was an adult, and hobbles with the help Art in Buenos Aires in 1971. the southernmost city in the Vik i n g of a cane in old age. This piece may be executed in Between 1989 and 1999, this piece path of conquest during the great By freeing Thebes from the Sphinx, several ways. All 720 clocks may be was only performed at concerts or Viking explosion of the 800s. Later, Oedipus established himself as a the same kind of clock. Al t e r n a t i v e l y , festivals north of Paris when the considering possible archeological hero and ascended the throne of each clock may be different than all audience demanded a third encore. evidence in North America, the Thebes as king in the place of the the other clocks, a selection of alarm Now it may be performed anywhere. Norman kingdom of Sicily and murdered Laios. The story of his clocks, cuckoo clocks, pendulum I created it as a modest proposal for Harald Hardraada’s conquests tragedy and the fate he tried to clocks, grandfather clocks, Meredith Monk. She had performed around the Mediterranean as avoid is told in Sophocles’s trilogy of wristwatches, spring wound clocks, in a concert at the Henie Onstad general of the Varangian Guard, it Theban plays, Oedipus the King, electric clocks, digital clocks, and so Museum in Oslo, where the seemed to me this piece could be Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus. on . audience demanded encore after performed anywhere. This piece presents an object From time to time, I have considered encore. We went out to dinner solution to the riddle of the Sphinx. other possibilities. These might together after the concert. First Event The symbols - milk, sugar, and salt - include all clocks in any hour being Meredith and I had much in are transparent in some ways, the same kind of clock, with the 720 common. We both worked at This event was first performed at the opaque in others. clocks divided among twenty-four many years 1989 Fluxus Concert in Bergen, di f ferent kinds of clocks. Th e s e before, though not at the same time. Norway with the text, “For his first Altar to Borges solutions never seemed as We had many friends in common event in Norway, John Armleder will interesting to me as all clocks being and we had heard of each other stay in Switzerland.” It had seemed The literary work of Argentine writer di f ferent or all the same. through mutual friends. She was likely that John would come to and librarian Jorge-Luis Borges While the score to this piece has talking about the difficulty of being Norway and possible that explored many themes in been exhibited often, the piece itself called on for so many encores when he would perform in the concert. His contemporary life that become remains unrealized. It is related to I volunteered to create a short, trip to Norway was delayed, giving increasingly visible through the another unrealized project, Tim e entertaining piece for such rise to this piece. This piece is mediation of new technology. His Piece, and to an installation at Vic e occasions. This was the result. related to the 1967 event, Doing His many explorations of the ideas of Versand in Remscheid, Germany, This event is based on a scene in Thing with You . the book and the library can be read titled Time, Space, Light, Memory, the Hollywood movie titled Th e as metaphorical predictions of way and Forgetfulness. Vikings. The Vikings starred Kirk Long Ships Event These days, I use the Swedish “Lilla shape-shifting means that it can be permitting them to be carried about. Fick” that shows the holidays of the realised in many more. I made a number of these without This piece is based on the same Swedish church. This is more useful naming them or creating a score for movie that gave rise to Two Second to me now that I am married to an Marching Band th e m . Encore. At the beginning of the ordained deacon. I notated many of my projects and movie, Kirk Douglas returns home While the expensive time planners This piece is based on the annual objects into scores in 1966 at from a Viking raid to his little never helped, they did give rise to 17th of May parade in which George Maciunas’s request. I didn’t Norwegian village on the fjord. As this event. I did get something useful Norwegians celebrate their national notate this work until recently. I his ship slides through the beautiful, out of them, though I’m not sure da y . Music is one of the national recalled the piece as I began to waters surrounded by tall cliffs, he exactly what use it is. I wrote this pastimes of Norway, and many reconstruct memories and notes for begins to leap around the outside of piece in an expensive time planner I Norwegians take part in marching all of my objects. I created the title the ship, jumping from oar to oar. bought in New York in 1985 and bands. On May 17, hundreds of for the score. The first version of the This little dance is based on a placed it on a desk at the front of my these bands converge on Oslo to work was constructed in the 60s. description of an old Viking lord in lo f t . march in grand review past the royal The piece took its title from the one of the ancient sagas. palace and through the streets. Hollywood fantasy fairy-tale movie, Douglas plays the son of a Vik i n g Shape Shifting From time to time, I notice some of The March of the Toy Soldiers chieftain. Ernst Borgnine portrays the performers signing or humming starring Laurel and Hardy. the chieftain. As the ship In the sagas, a shape-shifter is a rather than playing their instruments. The first versions of this piece approaches the village, they greet magical creature much like a involved small objects on a table. each other from a distance. werewolf. Kveld-Ulf, the grandfather Tone Hammer There were no rods. I later made Dick Higgins and of Egil Skallagrimsson, was a large magical objects on rods. At first performed the piece in 1990, for sh a p e - s h i f t e r . The name Kveld-Ulf This piece was first presented at some point, I combined the idea for the Sub-Atomic Fluxus Festival at means night wolf. Roskilde Museum of Contemporary the large magical pieces and the the Biennale of Ven i c e . Egil Skallagrimsson was one of the Art, Roskilde, Denmark, in the idea for the small toy army. Most of great Viking warrior-poets of Iceland. exhibition “Broken Music.” I don’t the large pieces with objects bound The Last Days of Pompeii His story, Egil’s Saga, was probably know if anyone performed it. Th e to sticks or rods are related to the written in the early 1200s by Snorri work incorporates a convoluted story idea of magic, and they have a For years, I have cherished the vain Sturlusson. It is a national treasure about , Per Kirkeby, di f ferent score. Some were carried in hope that I would eventually develop of Icelandic literature. Hermann and Henning Christiansen. processional events and parades. more efficient work habits, wake up Palsson and Paul Edwards rendered Large toy soldiers on poles made promptly at dawn, get to bed on Eg i l ’ s Saga into English, and it is The March of the Toy Soldiers from ordinary objects were used in time, and find myself able to write now available as a Penguin ironic war games and parades, too. and get work done on the deadlines Pa p e r b a c k . From the time I was a child, long At some point, I saw a way to realise that other people seem to be able to Most Icelanders know their family before I joined Fluxus, I enjoyed this piece as a small table-top ma s t e r . I have never managed to do tree back through hundreds of playing with objects, using quite object. I began making table and so. Every now and then, I have tried years. Sandra Ericsson, the art ordinary things as something other box objects for installation and to reach the goal with the help of a historian, is one of them. Since than what they were. Sometimes exhibition in 1968. These included desk diary, a pocket agenda or any Sandra is a direct descendent of this involved physical transformation. works such as Geography Box, Light of one of the several time planning Egil, she is also a direct descendent Other times, it involved only a Box and others. Some of the objects systems that are supposed to help of Kveld-Ulf. I once asked her, “How transformation of thought or involved placing objects on rods in one to manage professional does it feel to be the descendent of pe r s p e c t i v e . sand or plaster to hold them in a and private life more effe c t i v e l y . a werewolf?” She was puzzled for a After my family and I moved to steady position. I reconceived Th e None of them have worked for me. minute, until I reminded her that Egil California in 1961, I was active in the March of the Toy Soldiers as a table The only one that has been was Kveld-Ulf’s grandson. Then she peace movement. I sometimes object in 1994. This object requires a reasonably useful was the little nodded, adding, “I never thought of made small armies or collections of collection of two or three dozen “seventh sense” pocket-sized diary. that before.” ordinary objects for ironic war corks from wine bottles, whisky I’m told Thor Heyerdahl carried one This piece has been realised in games. Some years later, I also bottles, and the like. Get as many on his expedition across the Pacific. many ways. The mutable nature of mounted them on rods or poles, thin metal rods as there are corks. The rods should be 1 to 1.5 such choir. She often sang songs and a number of drafts for the score may exchange or give objects. millimetres in diameter. Cut them at about the cuckoo, a bird that is to ’s Th i r d This piece allows others to give. di f ferent heights between 19 and 30 central to Finnish folk traditions. Sy m p h o n y . Paik never wrote his It is also related to a number of ce n t i m e t r e s . While living in Finland, I began to own Third Symphony, so he projects involving shrines. Construct a wooden box on legs. collect cuckoo lore and cuckoo commissioned me to do so. Some of The box can be any sturdy, plain im a g e r y . the drafts were quite bad, one or two Ex h i b i t i o n wood. It should stand standing 30 Tod a y , I live in a small village in the quite good. The final - and best - centimetres off the ground from the Swedish countryside. In the spring draft was destroyed in the 1971 The art world has always puzzled floor or surface on which it stands to and summer, it is often possible to Newhall earthquake in Los An g e l e s . me. While I can observe and report the top of the box. The box should hear the cuckoo singing in the forest For a time in the late 1960s, I was a accurately on the social and cultural be 12 centimetres deep from the near my house. My dog and I like to frequent performer of contemporary patterns of the art world, I find it inside floor to the lip. The outside walk in the evenings. music. For a short period, I di f ficult as a human being to dimensions of the table should be We always stop to listen when the composed and performed the music understand how people can behave 30 centimetres by 30 centimetres. cuckoo sings. for a small modern dance troupe in as they do in relation to art. As I This will make an object whose San Francisco. In the 1986, I came became involved in Fluxus and outside dimensions form a cube. Re n t e r ’s Orchestra across a large box of my tapes from Something Else Press, the desire to Fill the box with plaster of Paris. the 1960s and 1970s. When I exhibit, circulate and sell our When the plaster sets sufficiently to Over the years, I have played many listened to them, I was horrified at products led me to wonder hold the rods firmly as you sink instruments, none of them well. As a how bad they were. I destroyed the increasingly about art galleries, art them, place the rods in the plaster. child, I studied piano. When I was tapes and I haven’t touched an museums and the art market in Place the rods so that they form supposed to be practicing instrument since. general. One of the problems that small groups and clusters. Imagine Beethoven or Mozart, I used the puzzled me deeply in the late 1960s that they are toy soldiers in a battle. piano to make noise. The noises I Fluxus Balance Piece was how it was that the art market Set them at slightly different angles made ranged from what I would later so frequently neglected artists who and in relationships that will give discover to resemble to music of This piece was originally published were extraordinarily talented. In them a dynamic feeling. Erik Satie all the way to what could in ’s Fluxus Balance some cases, I observed an even There are two ways to make this be considered a piano rendition of Poem. Balance Poem was one of more puzzling phenomenon. Th i s object, depending on how you want third-stream jazz in the tradition of the many collaborative poetry works was the phenomenon of important, to install and exhibit it. The main Sun Ra. This was in the mid-50s in that Mieko Shiomi has created over influential artists overlooked by the di f ference is the length of the legs New London. I didn’t know these the years. Several of the Spatial art world. These were not minor under the box. The taller box needs composers or their work at that time. Poem series were published by figures. Rather, they were manifestly heavier and more solid carpentry. I came to know and love the music George Maciunas. They were later influential, artists whose work and Everything is built as above except of Satie and Sun Ra. I composed gathered into a wonderful book. ideas had significantly influenced - that the box is on long legs, 65 music. I studied composition in or even shaped - work that the centimetres from the floor to the undergraduate and graduate level Adonis meets Ae s c h y l u s market chose to reward. This did not bottom of the box. courses with . Few coincide with the account of artistic of my scores survive, the widest The first version of this installation influence and history that I heard in Holy Bird of Finland publication being a work published was realised with photographs of art and art history circles, and it by in his book Notations. Ole Rikard Høeisæther and Ken didn’t accord with the way art In 1987, I spent the year in Finland. My career as a composer left few Fr i e d m a n . magazines described the During part of that time, I lived with a traces. Among them are a biography development of art. Finnish artist named Jaana in Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Pr e c i n c t This led me to study the sociology of Kortelainen. Like the Norwegians, music and Musicians and a ar t . the Finns are a music-loving people. biography in John Vin t o n ’ s Several times over the years, I have Dick Higgins often told me not to try Where Norwegians seem to form Dictionary of Contemporary Music. made pieces which involve to make a living from art. My first bands and orchestras, Finns seem In addition, there are a few projects exchanging objects or art works with career choice was the ministry, and to perform in choirs and singing such as the issue of Source people, or giving them works, or on my way to a career in the groups. Jaana was a singer in one magazine I edited in the early 1970s creating places within which they Unitarian Universalist ministry, I studied psychology, social science had taken so many graduate level empirical description of the social York office. The Guide was an and education. I applied several courses that writing a thesis would reality of the art world rather than innovative data base in magazine times to enter Starr King School for also earn me my master’s degree. the kinds of sociology of art that had form that covered all the exhibitions the Ministry at the Graduate From 1971 when I finished my MA been attempted hitherto. Th e s e and art programs in the United Theological Union in Berkeley, until 1972, I wandered about. I were social interpretations of art, States and Canada. Helyn California. I was rejected twice. I’m travelled to Canada to take part in interpretations of society through art, Goldenberg developed it in Chicago. told that the first rejection was the projects at Image Bank and to do an and a great deal of important work in She was later the president of the swiftest and most unanimous exhibition at the Vancouver Ar t nearly every area of social analysis Museum of Contemporary Art and rejection in the history of the school. Ga l l e r y . I went to the University of but the description of the art world then a director of Sotheby’s. Th e The second rejection was even Saskatchewan in Regina as a itself as a social entity. National Arts Guide was later more interesting. I am told that the visiting lecturer for six weeks in the At the end, the thesis was much purchased by Art in America, and it meeting went on in what was the middle of winter on the Canadian smaller than it might have been. survives in the annual Art in Am e r i c a longest application debate in the plains. I drove across the United After spending a great deal of time directory of galleries and museums. history of the school, finally settled States to work with Jean Brown and and money on my research, I was During this time, I also helped to by the unusual method of a vote. On help her to establish the Tyr i n g h a m faced with a choice between two develop and launch an innovative occasion, I audited courses at the Institute and what was to become an kinds of thesis. One was a massive national art magazine called Ar t school. I even taught a course there, important collection of Fluxus and volume gathering and orchestrating Express, and served as its editor but I never did attend. now at the Getty Institute in all the evidence, bit by bit, to reach a and editorial director. We launched In 1972 and 1973, I worked at the Los Angeles. Then I took the job at conclusion I still felt unready to the magazine quite successfully. De Benneville Pines Unitarian De Benneville Pines. reach. In addition, this would have One of the elements of a successful Universalist conference centre in the After leaving De Benneville, I was at taken several years of writing. Th e launch was a carefully structured mountains of southern California. A loose ends for what to do. I had other project was a short, competent profit-sharing plan that enabled me year surrounded by church become interested in doctoral work thesis outlining the basis of what I to hire outstanding employees for far programs and church organisations in psychology and human behaviour, had learned and demonstrating a less than I could pay them in cash. led to a decision not to pursue the but visits to one university and sound methodological foundation for In essence, this plan was the same ministry further. another failed to run up a program further work. This was the thesis I kind of system used so successfully Shortly after leaving De Benneville that suited my needs. That was wrote in 1976. by Semco in Brazil, and it contained Pines, I met Richard Farson in a when I ran into Richard Farson. In a way, I am glad that I wrote the certain elements of the incentive bookstore in La Jolla. Farson, later Farson advised me to look into the shorter thesis, because many programs so significant to the the head of the Aspen Design doctoral program in leadership and additional years of research have growth of Silicon Valley in recent Conference, had been president of human behaviour at the Graduate not yet answered some of the years. Based on the plan, I was able the Western Behavioural Sciences School of Human Behaviour at deepest questions I entertain. to attract a national staff of Institute in La Jolla. We had met United States International I continued my research in the late outstanding scholars and art briefly when he was a dean at the Un i v e r s i t y . I did and it seemed 1970s and early 1980s while historians working as freelance art then-new California Institute for the interesting. I applied and I was working to develop a private critics and as editors. While my Arts in 1970. That was when so accepted. research centre called the Institute partners agreed to the plan, I was many Fluxus people came to Cal As I began to consider a project in for Advanced Studies in reviewing the corporate papers one Arts as faculty, and I was working as human behaviour that would serve Contemporary Art. I had an active day when I discovered that the general manager of Something Else as the basis for my doctoral career in publishing, in developing covenanted provisions of the plan Press. Dick Higgins had thought I dissertation, I returned again to the book series and research projects were not included in the proper ought to apply for a faculty post, but questions that had puzzled me for various companies and documents. I called the managing lacking any degrees at the time, no about the art world. Consequently, I organisations. I occasionally did partner to ask about this. His answer one was willing to consider me. did my research on the sociology of some writing on art and art history. was that there was no plan but that When Dick left for Vermont after the art. The dissertation involved the first From time to time, I even managed it didn’t matter since we were both great 1971 earthquake, I returned to large-scale, empirical study of the to produce and exhibit art. going to become rich because of our San Francisco State University. In a art world across the entirety of North In 1979, I moved to New York to successful launch. burst of activity, I completed my America. The sociology of art I serve as executive editor of National This was not acceptable to me. ba c h e l o r ’s degree and discovered I attempted to develop was an Arts Guide and to open the New After a struggle in which I attempted to ensure the rights and agreements involves the private research of Isaac Stage Fright Event Texas Foot Event we made with our employees, I was Newton, but it doesn’t stop there. forced out of the company. Broke Examples of the costume: a large, The action takes place to the music and out of work, I tried to figure out Diving Event broad-brimmed hat, a scarf, a huge of Bob Wills and his Tex a s what to do next. I wanted to stay in sweater with a very high neck, and a Playboys. If the performer sings publishing, but I couldn’t afford to This event may be installed or bulky wool skirt; or, a bundle of along, other tunes may be used. I invest in a new magazine. I had to performed. If it is impossible to layered wool blankets; or, a specially suggest : “The Twentieth Century is create an art publication that was create a proper installation or sewn sack with holes cut for the Almost Over” from the album Th e valuable enough to gain subscribers performance in ice, large black hands and legs. Highwayman Vol. 1, or “Silver while costing little enough to launch. circles may represent the holes. Th e Stallion” from The Highwayman, The answer was a newsletter. Th e circles may be made of cloth or Selection Event Vol. 2. I was once told that some one subject that would justify a high painted board. The diving may be cowboys used to break in their new enough subscription price to enable performed as dance or gesture. This event is a retelling of the boots by taking a bath in them. me to survive by publishing a This piece was first performed at the marriage of Njord and Skadi. Th e This event is an homage to all the newsletter was the economics of art. SE O U L OF FLUXUS festival in only source for this myth is Snorri cowboys and cowgirls who have Fu r t h e r , my research train, my Seoul, Korea. St u r l u s o n ’ s Prose Edda. tried it. business knowledge, and my This myth tells the story of what general knowledge of the art world New Shoes Dance Theatre happens when the gods killed the Beard Event gave me the skills for the kinds of giant Thiazi after he kidnapped the investigative journalism required for Many Fluxus works involve shoes. goddess Idun and took her golden Every winter for years, my friend a serious economic newsletter. The most famous of these is Al i s o n apples. Th i a z i ’ s daughter, Skadi, Arvid Johannessen grew a beard. Fi n a l l y , it had become clear to me Kn o w l e s ’ s event titled “Shoes of swore vengeance on her father’s Every spring, he shaved it off. He that the answers to some of the Your Choice.” killers. She travelled to Asgard to told me that shaving his beard was questions unanswered by my earlier Most of the shoes in Fluxus events confront the gods. a kind of signal of the spring for him. research could only be answered and objects have been old shoes, Wishing no further bloodshed, the I wrote this event in his honour. through economic analysis. Th a t shoes whose use tells a story, shoes gods offered gold in payment. Skadi I performed this event myself many meant I could earn a living with a history. This piece involves refused. When asked what she times before I thought of it as an conducting research in which I was shoes that have no history. Rather, wanted in compensation, she said, event. I hate to shave. I don’t really passionately interested. In 1981, in the process of the dance, they “a husband and laughter.” like having a beard either. My The Art Economist was born. create a kind of history. However, The gods decided to allow her to answer was not to shave and then The story of my experience with the they are new shoes, hard to use, choose a husband from among to shave when the beard became a newsletter is a long tale in its own and they are broken in for use only them, but they did so in an unusual nu i s a n c e . right, best told elsewhere. Th e s e as the dance progresses. Th i s wa y . They set up a scrim, and she My wife, Ditte Mauritzon, decided notes are a background to the work means that the dance is always had to choose her husband by his that she likes me with a short beard. Exhibition. It is the condensed somewhat painful, and therefore feet. Hoping to choose Balder, fairest Since we met, I got a nice pair of summary of one area of my cl u m s y . The shoes are new with and most handsome of he gods, clippers and now I keep my beard research in the economics of art. every dance. Skadi selected the most beautiful short without shaving. This piece can also be seen as a pair of feet. The feet did not belong Ar v i d ’ s beard still appears every The Secrets of Nature meditation on the process of to Balder, but to Njord, god of the wi n t e r , and he still shaves it off every innovation and change. It is also a se a . sp r i n g . In the 1990s, I began to read again metaphor of the learning cycle in Skadi, sometimes called the in the philosophy of science. Th i s which new knowledge is adapted Snowshoe Goddess, came from the Do - I t - Y ourself Monument reading inevitably leads to readings and developed through a conscious home of the giants deep in the in the history of science, a subject and clumsy process. In most Jotunheim mountains. Njord lived in The first version of the do-it-yourself that had fascinated me as a learning, the knowledge is worn in, the shipyard Noatun. Neither was monument was built in Point Loma, yo u n g s t e r . moving from the explicit to the tacit. comfortable in the home of the California, during the Fluxfest at the The Secrets of Nature tells a hidden In New Shoes Dance Theatre, the ot h e r . Finally, after living in each Red Shed Gallery. The monument story about the early relationships process is always new, fresh and ot h e r ’s homes by turn, they decided was built of wood, cloth, and paper. between alchemy and physics. It slightly painful. to remain married but to live apart. An unrealized version was proposed for stone blocks. In 1970, the slightly warm, it will stay firm. silly goose, I found the goose and White Bar Lippincott Foundry held a As the shoe sits, the butter will gave it to her. Later, she competition for cast metal sculpture. evaporate and harden ever so de c i d e d she was glad she didn’t do I realised a variation of White Bar in This proposal was for an edition of sl i g h t l y . After a year or two, the it, and wrote to me that she was 1968 when I hosted a small party 10,000 cubes, each an inch square, butter should become fairly hard, really a clever goose. serving only clear liquors - vodka, from which versions of the Do-It- even at room temperature. On the way home from Bremen I got rum and tequila. The liquors were Yourself Monument could be I’ve often made works based on the a little toy airplane from mixed with fresh orange juice or realised. The proposal was not conceptual transformation of Lufthansa, the kind they give to fresh lime juice or served plain. accepted. Asmall version of the Do- ordinary objects. These objects children. I was thinking about Isolde This simple version of White Bar It - Y ourself Monument was realised often use ordinary wooden tables as one day, and I was thinking about was realised for at a 1968 party at during the 1989 Paris Fluxus platforms or even as part of the Wag n e r ’s opera. The airplane and the San Francisco Fluxhouse on exhibition using sugar cubes in a work. Shoes have been among the one of the little wooden geese were The liquors were mixed with fresh wooden cigar box. This belongs to objects I’ve used most. in the same cabinet. My thoughts orange juice and fresh lime juice or Dorothy Selz, an artist who creates This particular piece is related to a formed number of associations — they were served neat. work from sugar. Aversion of the 1993 piece titled The History of Tristan and Isolde in the opera, the White Bar was also the basis of a sugar-cube monument was Fluxus, using two shoes, one filled legend on which Wagner based his collection of clear liquors I exhibited at Krognoshuset in Lund, with salt, one with sugar. opera, flying creatures (birds and assembled at the flat I share with Sweden, in 1997. Ami n i a t u r e airplanes), flight, friendship and a Arvid Johannesen in Norway. From version of the sugar cube monument Tristan + Isolde few private associations I’d rather 1988 to about 1992, I’d bring back a was realised for the millennium shift. keep private. bottle of local clear liquor every time This belongs to Reed Al t e m u s . In March 1992, I was invited to I travelled to a foreign country. We Bremen, Germany, to open an Tav e r n had loza rakuja from Jugoslavia, Magic Trick #2 exhibition by Dutch Fluxus artist Bob bailloni from Hungary, raki from Lens, Observatorium Total. Th e This is an object that is made of Turkiye and ouzo from Greece, This is one way to tell the story of exhibition was presented at small liquor bottles, the kind you get kirschwasser and pflumi from Fl u x u s . Kunstlerhaus am Deich. I also on airplanes, in gift shops and in Switzerland, grappa from Italy, lectured at the Neues Museum some tax-free shops. I made the first vodka from Finland - as well as AWhispered History Wes e r b e r g . one in New York in 1966 as a vodka from Iceland, Poland, Russia, While I was there, I met a German prototype for a Fluxus multiple to Sweden, Norway and Ireland - Get a large block of butter. Use artist named Isolde Loock. She’s the have been titled Fluxtavern. Th e eiswetter and Furst Bismarck from winter feed butter if you can find it. only person I know named Isolde. multiple was never produced. One Ge r m a n y , brandwijn from the The cows eat hay during the winter We started a wonderful friendship of the variations was a collection of Netherlands and dozens of diffe r e n t and their butter tends to be more and correspondence. At one point gag liquors. I think I sold it to Jon kinds of clear fruit distillates from all firm than summer utter when the when we first knew each other, we Hendricks for Gil Silverman’s over Europe. Some of them were cows eat grass. Winter butter melts were talking about something and co l l e c t i o n . quite good. Some were terrible. less easily and runs less readily she said that maybe she would feel Since I started work on the Fluxus One night we had a small party at than summer butter. Let the butter like a silly goose if she didn’t do it. I multiple, I’ve collect small liquor the flat. Øyvind Storm Bjerke, art warm up to room temperature. happened to have a wooden goose bottles when I like the shape or the historian and chief curator of the Unless the room is especially hot, it that I had been carrying around with label. When I have a large enough Henie Onstad Museum, attended. will not melt. When the butter is me. I bought several of these collection, I assemble them into a Arvid proudly pointed to the warm, it will be plastic and easily wooden geese in Oslo a month or version of Tavern. There have been collection. Øyvind went over, looked malleable. Use a spoon to pack the two earlier. There were some large several different versions over the over the bottles, judiciously butter into the shoe that goes on the ones and some small ones. I liked years. I’ve probably completed one uncorked a few and sniffed them. left foot. If you pack the shoe slowly them, so I got them to make some every three or four years since the After a few minutes inspection, he and carefully, you should be able to kind of project. I was carrying one This piece is related to several liquor nodded knowingly and said: “Dette fill it quite tightly without any spill- with me. It’s very funny that I had it. I events. One is a 1964 event titled må bli den definitiv samling av over or dripping. The ultimate goal is brought it to Germany without any White Bar. verdens dårligste brennevinner.” - a shoe that is packed with firm special purpose in mind. After Isolde “This must be the definitive bu t t e r . Even though the butter is made her statement about being a collection of the world’s worst liquors.” Not too much later, we had of 1958, as a map of the journey Christmas Tree Event another party where the film-maker from New London, Connecticut to Jan Schmidt finished the collection. Long Beach, California. A ti m e First performed 10 p.m., December series was realised in 1959 with 31, 1964 in Manhattan Beach, The History of Fluxus postcards from the Peabody Ca l i f o r n i a . Museum of Natural History at Yal e (Optional: version) University in New Haven, In One Year and Out the Other Polish the shoes from time to time. Connecticut. Card Trace was planned for a Fluxus multiple using This event has been performed Scrub Piece sets of commercially printed cards. every year since 1975. Texts: Ken Friedman Each set was to describe a diffe r e n t I first performed this event on New Realised at the Nathan Hale ‘trace’, in 1968. It would have been Yea r ’s Eve 1975-1976, calling from Typography: Paul Robertson Monument in New London, a sequel in two-dimensional form to Springfield, Ohio forward to Dick Connecticut on March 20, 1956, this the three-dimensional Just For You Higgins, Christo, and Nam June was my first event. I didn’t think of it Fluxkit. Card Trace was never Paik in New York, then back to Tom Ken Friedman's events were as an art work until I came into pr o d u c e d . Garver and Natasha Nicholson in originally copyright in the year of Fluxus: it was simply something I California. I have celebrated this did, an event in the strictest sense of Bird Call work annually since then, frequently publication. Events published the word. While I engaged in these calling Tom Garver, Peter Frank, between 1966 and 1978 were kind of events throughout much of First realised with a telephone call to Newton and Helen Harrison, copyright © in the year of my life, it wasn’t until I began Jack Ox’s parakeet, Dwight, then Abraham Friedman and Dick working in the context of Fluxus that living in Cologne. Higgins. For New Yea r ’s of 1992- publication by Fluxus and by Ken I thought of events in the sense that 1993 I used telefax for the first time Friedman. Events published I use the term today. I simply built Tønsberg Ship in performing this work. I sent telefax since 1978 were copyright © in things or realised ideas or made messages with the score to Christo models of things that interested me. Colour specifications exist for the and Jeanne-Claude Christo, Peter the year of publication by Ken Many of them were acts or works green colour I prefer. Th e s e Frank, Abraham and Shirley Friedman. that I repeated, much as I did after specifications are either PMS 370 or Friedman, Dick Higgins, Hong Hee meeting the other Fluxus people. 4-F 100% Yel l o w , 20% Magenta, Kim-Cheon, Choong-Sup and Yeo n g When George Maciunas explained 70% Cyan. Lim, Karen and David Moss. This collection is copyright © the event tradition to me, it gave a Over the past decade, increasingly 2001 by Ken Friedman. All rights kind of theoretical organisation to a Untitled Card Event large numbers of people have been reserved. Any material in this practice that had been central to my performing this event using email. experience. I may have done these This event was first realised on a collection may be quoted, copied, kinds of things earlier, but this is the summer vacation trip between the or reproduced freely with proper first event for which I was able to Catskill Mountains of New York and acknowledgment and find notes when George brought me New London, Connecticut. To into Fluxus. perform the event, one should preservation of this copyright gather the cards and read the notice. Folk Dance message aloud. This piece was included in the collection of my This is a brief autobiographical scores that George Maciunas Printed on 140gsm acid free matt fr a g m e n t . planned to publish but didn’t realise. paper in a signed and numbered I recently thought that this piece and edition of 250 plus 10 deluxe Card Tra c e Spell Your Name Kit may have inspired Maciunas’s 1972 copies and two artist’s proofs. The first travel sequence was Spell Your Name with Objects boxes realised during a trip in the summer and the Valoche kits. Ken Friedman 2001 December 2001.