Clinton McKay

I love you and I loved hearing your input on the “what is art” debate. I think I will start asking questions on here more often because… I care what you guys think about art stuff and I miss being an art student and getting to sit around and talk about art all day as if there weren’t anything in the whole world anywhere near as important as Fluxus event scores. (For clarification, there is nothing in the whole world anywhere near as important as Fluxus event scores)

Fluxus artists often produced objects during performance which were considered artifacts or by-products of the performance (for example, the line drawn by Nam June Paik during his Zen for Head interpretation of LaMonte Young’s Composition 1960 #10). Alternatively, Fluxus artists would often purchase and then redistribute ready-made objects as a statement on the availability of art and as a continuation of earlier Dadaist activities involving the readymade and its status as a new form of art object which could function in much the same way as paintings and sculptures produced originally by artists. Fluxus, however, did not endorse the production of traditional fine art objects to be subsequently utilized as a medium for artistic expression. In the rare cases when more-or-less traditional fine art objects were produced under the name of Fluxus, they tended to be distributed in methods incongruous with those used to distribute the fine art objects they emulate—that is to say, a painting produced by a Fluxus artist as a feature of his/her Fluxus practice would not have been sold in a gallery but, far more likely, would have been part of some performance, whether literally (as a prop in the performance of an Event) or figuratively as part of a statement on the traditions surrounding art production. Johnson’s collages, however, served both this discursive purpose and the purpose of traditional art objects. While Johnson used Janklow’s Palomaized portraits to facilitate the performance of his interactions with Janklow, they also existed as objects which Johnson himself would have considered physical products of his art practice. It is this distinction which separates Johnson’s art most distinctly from that of other artists producing objects while exploring the boundaries of Intermedial art forms.

From Ray Johnson: Performance and the Contractual Art Object
(My term paper for my class on the history of Pop art & Fluxus) 

The Evening of Fluxus Performance last night was a huge success. I got to scream at people as loudly as possible and play a french horn filled with water but my friend Dana’s performance of Zyklus was probably the highlight. I’m so glad I finally got to do a Fluxus concert with tons of people! 

My BFA show opened last night and it couldn’t possibly have gone better, my work got a great reception and plenty of old ladies were gasping and yelping when they saw people cutting up my art, also I am now in the permanent collections of every faculty member at my school thanks to my Stamp Dispenser after Robert Watts. Pics soon!