Fluxus events provided a productive setting for artists to test the possibilities of performance art as an art form.  

With reference to two examples, I consider how Fluxus helped to shape the development of performance art. 

I will assert that, Cut Piece (1963) by Yoko Ono and Vagina Painting (1965) by Shigeko Kubota, paved the way for female artists to break from tradition and use their bodies and audience participation to, within the medium of performance art, highlight issues around gender equality and explore the hidden crevasses of human nature.  

Both artists created a strong connection between performance art and activism with each, using very human, down to earth and relatable materials in their performances to produce strong metaphors and make the work and its meaning accessible to viewers from all walks of life, directly fulfilling the Fluxus Manifesto to ‘promote NON ART REALITY to be grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals.’ (Maciunas, 1963, Manifesto) they did this by performing with no bias to audience members, and by their work being based on topics that are relevant to people the world over as they were about real-world issues affecting people in the ‘now’. Coupled with this is the fact that the audiences are diverse and allowed to make their own decisions and draw their own conclusions regardless of their stature within society, education, age, sex, race etc. which indeed does ‘Fuse the cadres of cultural, social & political revolutionaries into united front & action’ (Maciunas,1963, Manifesto) Creating a common train of thought throughout the audience. I will show that these two pieces directly influenced female performance artists hereafter. 

Fluxus started its life as a Dada inspired movement which was more about the ridiculous and outlandish side of creative expression. While at first it had an air of primitivism about it, it soon underwent modernisation at the hands of Artist’s like Ono who realised its potential as a vessel for political aims, especially given its intimate access to the viewer as a participant. ‘Fluxus both unsettled the auratic art object and bypassed the museum’ (Meecham, 2000, pp.207) The audience were part of the piece, they were not passive voyeurs but instead, passionate contributors to the work in a real-world setting. 

The use of the everyday items and ideas of humanity and experience meant that nothing was too far out of the average viewers intellect for them to understand and relate to ‘ephemeral actions and processes that would transform everyday lives’ this meant the artists ideas were very grounded, and obtainable to the point of the audience being able to get behind the mindset of the artist with their individual reception of each piece. 

This led to real issues being discussed within the work, offering ‘a means of closing the gap between (modern)art and (modern) life.’ (Harrison, 2002, pp.690) and with it being so down to earth and ‘everyday’ it led to people idealising ways to pursue these issues in their day to day lives. This however did not take away the fact that while being relatable to day to day life Fluxus events were still art, they were performed in such a way as to hyper focus without distraction on one idea and narrative with as much ease as any galleried painting. Very similarly the happenings of Allan Kaprow worked in this way, taking the everyday and forcing viewers to participate in the ordinary but to make it extraordinary by the scale and focus of the experience. 

Fluxus performances were a huge step from the canvas to the immediate surroundings in every nook and cranny of the cities it was performed in ‘it did help to radically change notions of what art could be’ (www.artsy.net) It brought with it the possibility of more people than ever before being able to engage with, learn from and enrich their minds with easy access to these events. 

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece (1964) 

Cut piece by Yoko Ono provided an opportunity for the audience to actively become part of the art itself and of the experience. According to Bryan-Wilson, each performance would transform from an idea into a unique experience, by the individuals who participated which also led to multiple variations (Bryan-Wilson, 2003). The instruction from the artist is precise but minimal and leaves the participants to be able to choose their own expression within the parameters.  

As the piece begins people come and take tentative and frugal cuttings but as it progresses, they seem to gain confidence and with each new member of the audience comes bigger cuts, more substantial ‘souvenirs’ and more of the artist is exposed. 

 To watch it feels that with every strip of fabric removed another piece of her dignity is taken away.  

The visual impression has been described as ‘Really quite gruesome – more like rape than an art performance.’ (Schwendener, 2001, pp.139) This statement captures the essence of the film, the laughter in the crowd seems to belittle the ‘victim’ and empower the subsequent ‘abusers’. Like pack animals the taste of power over a submissive drives them.  

'art historians have rightly looked at cut piece as a prototype for feminist performance art’ (Bryan-Wilson, 2003 pp.103) and whilst Ono did not herself identify this piece to be feminist activism, speaking to Reuters News Agency she refers to the piece as against ageism, against racism, against sexism, and against violence. 

The clear messages sent in this piece and the impact this has, makes a convincing argument for this as a successful vessel for future activism within the medium. 

Shigeko Kubota Vagina painting 1965 

'Shigeko Kubota’s performance vagina painting of 1965(64) was unusual for its outright rejection of the feminine as a muse in favor of women as creator.’ (Godfrey, 1999, pp.104) Until this point women were rarely the creators rather, they were the revered subjects. Here Kubota takes the reigns for women in a strong and layered feminine statement to the art world and empowerment to her female audience. 

Kubota had a paintbrush attached to knickers which she wore, whilst squatting to paint in red without using her hands as if her womanhood alone is enough for this task. ‘The piece challenged the male-dominated world of abstract expressionism – the paintbrush became phallic, and the horizontal orientation recalled Pollock’s drip paintings.’ (www.artspace.com) This act, in itself, was an ‘Inversion of Jackson Pollock’s masculine action.’ (Godfrey, 1999, pp.104) it almost plays out as a poetic feminine response to Pollocks work, done with grace rather than brutish, outlandish satire.  

Rather than pinpointing an instance or personal issue Kubota uses this performance as ‘an assertion of her womanhood – the red paint being a clear reference to menstruation.’ (Godfrey, 1999, pp.104) Here she is taking ownership of this female rite of passage, almost celebrating it in her own version of Pollock’s dance but rather than it being personal she seems to be speaking out for all women.  

This was about as empowering as it got for women at this moment in the art world ‘many women artists turned to performance art or to new technologies as a way out of the gender bias of abstract expressionism.’ (Meecham, 2000, pp.164) this work reinforced the viability of the medium as a way of overcoming gender barriers in the art world and reaching the everywoman, the masses, the voters who were the best people to facilitate change in the future. 

Marina Abramovic ’Rhythm O’ (1974) 

Marina Abramovich’s Rhythm O, a decade later, is a clear instance of work inspired by both of Ono and Kabotu’s work 'In Rhythm O, 1974, she functioned solely as an object among others, offering the audience free access’ This is a direct extension of Yoko Ono’s Cut piece, taken to the next level, the scissors have been replaced with 72 individual objects which can be used on the artist who is now no more than an ‘object’ and where Ono had certain parameters and a ‘score’ dictating what the audience were expected to do in this piece the audience were left entirely to their own devices.  

In a bold move Abramovich let the audience facilitate all their urges no matter how dark and through this has highlighted the depravity of the human mind and how far people will go when allowed to. ‘Some viewers rapidly succumbed to their dark urges and abused the power they had over the helpless object.’ (Grosenick, 2003, pp.11) The links to feminism are strong, the objectification of women and the lengths people will go to when given the chance with women they feel any kind of ownership over. 

 This is only one instance of how female artists ‘continue to build on the freedom that the movement introduced into artmaking with their own work.’ (www.artsy.net) It is because of the strength of the messages within the work, the originality, and the intensification of the issues raised within the performances that each generation of performance artists has seen the worth of incorporating ideas from the Fluxus movement.  

There is no question that Kobuto and Ono certainly helped cement performance art as a strong method of activism in a very visceral emotive way which touches the viewer or participator and forces them to become more engaged and makes the points relevant to them despite the possibility of them not being open to the points being made originally. The experience of the performance makes the viewers feel the issues and the work in such a way that they are far more open to absorbing the points raised without consciously thinking them through.  

Being part of an experience stays with the viewer much longer than simple written or spoken information, it engages many different areas of the brain. There are the startling visuals of the artists own body, the feelings and emotions running through the crowd, the sight sound and smells of the room the performance takes place in all of which add up to an entire event which stimulates the memory.  

There is no expectation for anyone to act in a certain way there is a more mainstream idea of the appreciation of the work, no stuffy gallery or appearances to keep up, people from all walks of life can understand the aims and issues of the work and participation. This makes it an ideal channel for hard hitting activism. 

Modern performance art, which is based in many cases on or around the use of the artists body, has embraced the qualities of Fluxus performance as an event and built upon them. In doing so its created important, thought provoking and engaging new pieces such as Chris Burden’s ‘Trans Fixed’ where Burden was nailed by the hands to a car and driven out of a garage down the street, Marina Abramovic’s ‘The Artist Is Present’ where Abramovic sat across a table from members of the audience and simply existed there, looking into their eyes and ‘being’ with them and Genesis Breyer P-orridge's ‘Pandrogeny’ where the artist and their partner used their bodies to merge themselves, as best they could into one single entity.  

The modern performance art seems to be a hybrid where now the artists body is used in an ‘event’ to create a thought process, a questioning or a change within the audience. 

Researched and written by Sara Hood

Bibliography 

Books 

Hopkins, David (2000) After Modern Art: 1945-2000, Oxford University Press, Oxford 

Hodge, Susie (2012) Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That – Modern Art Explained, Thames And Hudson, London 

Hodge Susie (2011) 50 Art Ideas You Really Need To Know, Quercus Publishing, London 

Cottinton, David (2005) Modern Art – A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford 

Grosenick, Uta (2003) Women Artists In The 20th And 21st Century, Taschen, Koln 

Kellin, Thomas (2007)  The Dream of FLUXUS George Maciunas An Artist’s Biography, Edition Hansjorg Mayer, London 

Godfrey, T (1998) Conceptual Art, Phaidon , London 

Lucie-Smith, E (1990) The Thames And Hudson Dictionary Of Art Terms, Thames And Hudson, London 

Rosenberg, D (2003) Art Game Book, Assouline Publishing, New York 

Kuspit, D (1993) The Cult Of The Avant-Garde Artist, Press Syndicate Of The University Of Cambridge, USA 

Fineberg, J (2000) Art since 1940 Strategies Of Being, Lawrence King, London 

Read, Herbert (1994)  The Thames And Hudson Dictionary Of Art And Artists, Thames And Hudson, London 

Chilves, Ian (1994) ‘Beuys Joseph 1921-86' In Harold Osbourne And Dennis Farr [Eds] (1994) The Oxford Dictionary Of Art, Oxford University Press, Oxford, PP.54 

Foster, Hal (2004) in Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh [Eds] (2004) Art Since 1900 – Modernism Antimodernism Postmodernism, Thames And Hudson, London 

Carey, Brainard (2012) in D Singer [Eds] (2012) New Markets For Artists, Allworth Press, New York 

Meecham, P (2000) in Sheldon [Eds] (2000) Modern Art: A Critical Introduction, Routledge, New York 

Thompson, Chris (2009) Felt: Fluxus, Joseph Beuys, And The Dali Lama, University Of Minnesota Press, Minnesota 

Townsend, Christopher (2001) Across The Great Divide: Modernism’s Intermedialities From Futurism To Fluxus, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge 

Lushetich, Natasha (2001) Fluxus: The Practice Of Non Duality, Rodopi, Netherlands 

Journals 

Concamon, Kevin (2008) Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece – From Text To Performance And Back Again, in A Journey Of Performance And Art, Volume 30, Number 3, P.81-92 

Bryan-Wilson, Julia (2003) Remembering Yoko Ono’s ‘Cut Piece’, in Oxford Art Journal, Volume 26, PP.101-123 

Online Articles 

Artspace, https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/what-was-fluxus-52032 [Accessed 20 March 2019] 

Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/fluxus [Accessed 28 March 2019] 

Artsy, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-fluxus-movement-art-museums-galleries [Accessed 11 March 2019] 

The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/movement-fluxus.htm [Accessed 20 March 2019] 

Film 

Berger, John (1972) Ways Of Seeing 

Timothy Marrinan, Richard Dewey (2016) Burden 

Artworks 

Maciunas, George (1963) Fluxus Manifesto 

Kubota, Shigeko (1965) Vagina Painting 

Ono, Yoko (1965) Cut Piece