Fl-xus sco-res

Fluxxuxxssss


#1 - Fingernails
Look at your fingernails closey and bite for briefly 3 minutes.
Share your experience with other audiences

#2 - Facebook
Join facebook and facebook friend 100 random people.
Wait in front of the screen until ten people accept your friends request.

#3 - TV
Watch TV for two hours and write down how many commercials you watched.

#4 - Greeting
On a sunny day, go out and sit down and greet 100 people in the park.

#5 - Pancakes
Eat pancakes till you feel like throwing up.

Flu-xus Mov-ement

If I showed Yono Oko’s #16 – Lightening the Match piece to my mom, she would be like, “I don’t consider this kind of videos as art,” and walk away. I would have act as same as her prior to learning the history of the Fluxus Movement. Just feeling what is happening visually, acoustically is all about Fluxus. People without any knowledge about Fluxus, like my mom, would dislike the entire thing. Because Lightening the Match is a short video of igniting the match in a really slow motion. “So what?” my mom would say. However, it’s zoomed so close you can even see how the sparkle works and its eerie slow motion give you a tingle. Capturing and reinterpreting the moment that no one actually thought about it fascinates me like discovering chocolate candies in your purse!

The term Fluxus comes from Latin, meaning “to flow”. What do Fluxus artist do? Check out Fluxus Workbook of performance scores: screaming at the wall, play baseball with fruits, cook soup for every audience and more such non-sense things. People might say, “this is not art,” but Fluxus is about breaking traditional values and recreating meaning of art constantly. Fluxus artist sometimes look like psychos, but I envy their ability to integrate life and art in one. Investing entire life to explore a single concept of unifying the arts is what I want to do as an artist. Yes, people will call me a wacko, but that’s how your name remembered in the history like George Maciunas or Nam Jun Paik.

So anybody wants to play John Cage’s 4’33 with me? Orchestra version or piano or any instrument?

Cre-- m-- aster

The Cremaster

Matthew Barney

Long time ago, I was flipping through my high school art teacher’s magazine. Then I saw a very weird photo: a man who had goat nose and ears, orange hair with pale skin and blue eyes. It or the creature wasn’t a human nor an animal. Coming his hair, there was him and other ladies all dressed up formally in white. I spent more time looking at the picture because I had no idea what it was about. Of course, I didn’t know it was the same artist who created series of The Cremaster and I would watch the actual video at EMAC class. Yes, Matthew Barney.

I Youtube-d Matthew Barney and I found few interesting comments such as “too full of direction. Doesn’t work at all (jane******),” “I'm interested in Barney's aesthetic, but not because it's always genuine or good to me. It's just... I can't put my finger on it, but at times it feels so forced (madsket****), ” or “Seriously. What the hell (Ringshado****).” Basically you love Barney’s work or hate it.

At first I didn’t like The Cremaster 3 at all because I couldn’t understand. When I read or see things that are too out of my thinking system, I feel uncomfortable and confused. All I could think comfortably was vivid visual elements of the video. Main character’s pale skin with pink hair, holding something like a clothe with bleeding mouth, tap dancers, leopard woman… I have to say I never ever had seen anything like that in my life. But I couldn’t find any logical sequence or story. Random editing, rock band screaming and a guy trying to do something with wax, all of these nothing made sense to me.

After a little while, reviewing Barney’s video and short research did change my mind. The Creamaster was full of symbolism, metaphor, some kind of mythology too. I wish I could watch the video again to at least try to understand a bit of what Barney was expressing.

Barney’s music, visual, and spatial art are overwhelming, indeed.
Yes, now I understand why that random art magazine had a huge page distributed to him.

Blutclip

Blutclip

Pipilotti Rist

I have gone through "first menstruation" like my mom did, and her mom, and on and on. It’s very personal, secretive and even magical. As a male artist, Pipilotti Rist's interpretation of a girl experiencing her first period was intriguing. I could relate myself easily of a young girl’s understanding of her sexuality, unsettling hormone flow and adolescence period in the video.

A lot of times blood reminds me of death, pain or fear. However blood from menstruation means birth and life. Two very distinctive ideas happen in one occasion, and it happens monthly. When Rist expressed this idea with blood dripping everywhere on girl’s body, I felt uncomfortable. But at the same time, I felt relaxation that I wasn’t the only one who felt scared and weird about my first period experience.
In the video, part where girl’s body is spinning and planets flashing through on the black space really represented every girl’s encounter as becoming a women. Unsettling, chaotic and confusing.

Death of a girl, reborn as a woman. I’m just stunned how Rist captured that moments that cannot be shared because it is so sensitive. And he is a guy – biologically differently structured, testosterone filled body. I wonder I Rist would reinterpret a boy’s puberty process.

Indi-vidual-iz-ed

It was just funny to read an article starting from development of ENIAC, first fully electronic computer, for invented for military aids, to Electronic Superhighway, an installation piece by Nam June Paik. I always thought I couldn't understand performance or installation piece. Impressions I have about them are eerie sounds, dreamy images and illogical videos. But through essay by Randall Packer and Ken Jorden I could see how those relate to Facebook where I log in almost every day. Through computers, more specifically the Internet, I express my individuality.

Rather than on Facebook, I have another social community website account. Cyworld, that is Korean based, is often referred to as "mini hompy (mini homepage.)" I can do social communicate like as Facebook also I upload photographs and artworks on Cyworld. Friends or random people view, leave comments, and scrap to their mini hompy. Keeping them updated regularly usually make me feel better. What should I say, I feel more confident, proud of myself because I'm presenting my creations and thoughts - unique and special.

Although I didn't agree before now I understand how performance pieces are critical in modern art history. I thought it was some kind of art for weirdoes but there are no differences between me keeping mini hompy and doing performance art. Everything is about personal expression, individual choices whether I'm in front of computer or experiencing an interactive exhibition at museum. Ones in the museum require audiences to do more intense activities, five or maybe six senses to enjoy the arts. Interaction of all senses, expansion of human experience at one time and viewers' participation are indeed facts I did not know about contemporary non-traditional artworks that originated from engineer's technology development.
I should check out BMA or some other museums soon since I understand video or installation artists' intentions a little more. I should try feeling physical and psychological sensation!!

Man Ray

MAN RAY

When I first heard his name, my initial response was, “Who is this artist with weird name? Where is he from?” After watching the video for few minutes I realized he was one of the most influential artist of modern art. I felt a little embarrassed fact that I didn’t know him but later on I did actually recognized few of his photographs such as Le violon d'Ingres (1924) and Tears (1930).

Viewing his early Dadaistic paintings, Readymade sculptures to experimental photographs I felt he was an artist who really enjoyed his life – humorous personality, art, fame, and sharing romance with one of the beautiful women in his time.

Indeed Ray was a humours person. He loved to share his personality through art. Such as The Gift (1921) that is an iron with tacks glued on to shows his comical idea of useful useless objects. Also photographs of photographs of Dadaist Parisians and Ray took, all dressed up in funny costumes reveals his funny personality. Ray's way of approaching art impressed me, frankly saying. To me, art was very a serious subject. I expressed my burst of emotions such as anger, anxiety, sadness on canvases or papers because art was the only output. But when I think about it, expressing humour can also be sincere and serious because it is part of human nature. Man Ray inspired me to respect humours parts of myself. I wasn't just aware of it.
Still majority of people argue that art should be sacred and serious. Man Ray did a great job breaking that old tradition and many contemporary artist like Bansky's various graffiti works on public places in London and Robert  Rauschenberg's Erased De Kooning artwork..

I don't think I'm not good at expressing humour, it is definately one thing in art that I want to try as a contemporary artist and share, and laugh with other people.