Fluxus Day – gustavo matamoros

A single artwork in three parts

March 3, 2007 | Miami Beach and Miami, Florida
Presented as part of Subtropics 19

Fluxus Day was conceived as a single artwork unfolding in three parts across Miami Beach and downtown Miami. An upright piano traveled along Lincoln Road toward the ocean; Fluxus works and games occupied the beach; event scores were transformed into participatory fairground activities; and the day concluded with a concert in the Carnival Center’s Studio Theater.

The City of Miami Beach issued a Certificate of Recognition declaring March 3, 2007, Fluxus Day.

ORIGINS

Subtropics 19 took place from February 23 through March 4, 2007. Justin Macdonnell, then artistic director of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, had encouraged me to develop the festival around John Cage. I told Alison Knowles that I wanted Fluxus to be properly represented. She suggested inviting Larry Miller.

Alison, Larry and I met in New York and began developing ideas. Larry wanted to create a new work on the beach, and we discussed moving a piano from ArtCenter/South Florida, along Lincoln Road and onto the sand. Alison and Larry developed the beach activities; I conceived and organized Flux Fair; and the three of us came together for the concluding Fluxus Eve concert.

The day as a whole honored Nam June Paik, a central Fluxus artist and former Miami Beach resident who had died the previous year.

PART ONE: FLUXUS ON THE BEACH

Larry Miller removes layers of clothing beside an upright piano while Alison Knowles and onlookers participate in 88 Notes on Lincoln Road. — Albert Fine’s 88 Notes, performed by Larry Miller and Alison Knowles during Fluxus on the Beach. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

Fluxus on the Beach began at 11:00 a.m. at ArtCenter/South Florida, 800 Lincoln Road, with “Piano Odyssey: A Trojan Horse,” an event created by Alison Knowles and Larry Miller for Miami Beach.

Alison Knowles throws a dart toward the side of an upright piano as Larry Miller and a crowd watch on Lincoln Road. — Toshi Ichiyanagi’s Music for Piano No. 5, performed during the Lincoln Road piano procession. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

The procession opened with Albert Fine’s “88 Notes,” performed by Larry and Alison. The piano then traveled east along Lincoln Road, stopping for performances of George Maciunas’s “12 Compositions for Nam June Paik” and event scores by Toshi Ichiyanagi, Eric Andersen, Ben Patterson and others.

Larry Miller, dressed in a black tuxedo, pours a bucket of water over his head while standing at the ocean’s edge. — Larry Miller performing the world premiere of Atlantis Pirate for Paik on Miami Beach. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

The beach activities included two works presented by Subtropics as world premieres: Alison Knowles’s “Shoreline” and Larry Miller’s “Atlantis Pirate for Paik.”

A pair of shoes in the sand begins a long line of connected clothing and objects extending toward participants farther down the beach. — World premiere of Alison Knowles’s Shoreline, performed with Pip and Duane Brant on Miami Beach. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

For “Shoreline,” Alison, Pip Brant and Duane Brant joined clothing, toys, shoes, scarves and hats into a continuous line placed beside the sea. Larry performed “Atlantis Pirate for Paik” by entering the water dressed in a tuxedo while music from the television series “Victory at Sea” played.

ARCHIVAL NOTE: “SHORELINE”

The Subtropics 19 newspaper/program identified the Miami Beach presentation of “Shoreline” as its world premiere. Alison Knowles later preserved the sequence of its early performances in an account published in February 2008: first at the Subtropics Festival in Miami, followed by Newcastle, England, and then Black’s Beach in San Diego. Together, these sources establish the Subtropics presentation as the earliest documented performance of the work.

Four participants bend over marked lanes in the sand and blow through long tubes to propel small objects toward the finish. — Participants competing in Larry Miller’s Blow Soccer during Flux Sports on Miami Beach. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

The beach portion concluded with participatory Flux Sports overseen by Larry. These included Blow Soccer, six-foot-racket badminton, Slanted Shoe Race, Caterpillar Race, Slow Bicycle Race and the Zen Dash.

A group of smiling participants moves together beneath a long folded length of fabric during the Caterpillar Race. — Participants in Larry Miller’s Caterpillar Race during Flux Sports on Miami Beach. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

PART TWO: FLUX FAIR

Flux Fair took place from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. in the Carnival Center’s Plaza of the Arts. It was conceived as a public fair in which Fluxus event scores became booth-like activities and competitions.

I developed the adaptations, organized the booths and guided audiences through the different challenges. The repertoire included works by Eric Andersen, Ay-O, Robert Bozzi, Genpei Akasegawa, George Brecht, Ben Vautier, Toshi Ichiyanagi, George Maciunas, Mieko Shiomi, Tomas Schmit and Robert Watts.

Among the adaptations:

A participant speaks into a microphone beside two reel-to-reel tape machines connected by an extended length of magnetic tape. — Flux Fair variation of Eric Andersen’s Opera Instruction, using two reel-to-reel tape machines to create a physical sound delay. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

“Opera Instruction” by Eric Andersen used two reel-to-reel tape machines. A participant’s voice was recorded at one booth and carried on approximately fifteen feet of exposed tape to a second machine, where it emerged after a physical and audible delay.

A woman raises a handheld microphone toward floating soap bubbles while holding a bubble wand in her other hand. — Flux Fair variation of Ay-O’s Rainbow No. 1 for Orchestra, with a microphone used to amplify bursting soap bubbles. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

For Ay-O’s “Rainbow No. 1 for Orchestra,” the conductor’s baton was replaced by a microphone. Participants attempted to amplify the sound of bursting soap bubbles.

A young participant carefully builds a tall tower of alphabet blocks on the exposed strings of an upright piano as spectators watch. — Flux Fair variation of George Brecht’s Incidental Music No. 2, performed as an alphabet-block-building competition inside the piano. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

George Brecht’s “Incidental Music No. 2” became a competition to build the tallest tower of alphabet blocks upon the strings of an amplified piano.

A participant holds a sousaphone overhead while looking up toward a bright green tennis ball descending above its bell. — Flux Fair variation of Robert Watts’s C/S Trace, with participants attempting to catch launched tennis balls in the bell of a sousaphone. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

For Robert Watts’s “C/S Trace,” tennis balls were launched across the plaza by a ball-throwing machine while participants attempted to catch them in the bell of a sousaphone.

Gustavo Matamoros throws a dart toward the exposed back of an upright piano while Flux Fair participants watch. — Gustavo Matamoros demonstrates the Flux Fair variation of Toshi Ichiyanagi’s Music for Piano No. 5. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

Toshi Ichiyanagi’s “Music for Piano No. 5” invited participants to throw darts into the back of the piano. Although a target had been painted on its soundboard, the winner was determined by the loudest resulting sound rather than accuracy.

A woman raises a hammer over a nail positioned on an upright piano key while Gustavo Matamoros and other participants watch. — A Flux Fair participant performing Tomas Schmit’s Sanitas No. 151 by driving a nail through a piano key. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

After completing the challenges, participants received Flux Goody Bags containing a nail and an opportunity to take part in Tomas Schmit’s “Sanitas No. 151” by driving the nail through one of the piano’s keys.

The Flux Fair piano was separate from the piano used in the beach procession. It remains in the Subtropics Archive and Sound Art Collection and was later exhibited at The Bass as part of “SOUND: A Sound Art Exhibition” in 2009.

PART THREE: FLUXUS EVE

The Fluxus Eve concert began at 9:30 p.m. in the Carnival Center’s Studio Theater. Alison Knowles, Larry Miller and I performed and directed the Subtropics 19 Fluxus Eve Ensemble in a program combining our own works with pieces from the historical Fluxus repertoire.

Three Mini Coopers with illuminated headlights are arranged across the darkened stage of the Carnival Center’s Studio Theater. — George Brecht’s Motor Vehicle Sundown Event, performed with three Mini Coopers during Fluxus Eve. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

One of the evening’s largest events was an indoor realization of George Brecht’s “Motor Vehicle Sundown Event,” performed with three Mini Coopers and their drivers under Larry’s direction.

A grand piano stands on a dark theater stage beneath a small suspended yellow mechanical hand, with music stands arranged behind it. — Stage arrangement for Larry Miller’s Remote Music, with a suspended mechanical hand positioned above the piano. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

Five performers stand across the stage holding open a long, narrow, netlike fabric containing leaves and other materials. — Alison Knowles’s leaf-score work performed during Fluxus Eve. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

Five performers stand in darkness holding burning musical scores, their faces and music stands illuminated by the flames. — Robert Watts’s Trace for Orchestra performed during Fluxus Eve. Photograph by Luis Olazabal.

The program also included Larry’s “Remote Music,” a leaf-score work by Alison, and Robert Watts’s “Trace for Orchestra,” in which performers set fire to their scores after the theater lights were extinguished.

The evening concluded with Larry’s performance of Nam June Paik’s “One for Violin Solo.” Fragments of the instrument recovered after the performance remain in its violin case as part of the Subtropics collection.

ONE WORK ACROSS A CITY

Fluxus Day joined a procession, a beach, a public plaza and a theater into one extended artistic situation. Its materials included the Fluxus repertoire, two pianos, automobiles, clothing, tape machines, darts, soap bubbles, city geography, institutional partnerships and the participation of audiences who became performers.

The three parts were distinct, but together they formed one work: an experiment in what could happen when art moved through a city and invited the city to enter it.

City of Miami Beach certificate declaring March 3, 2007, Fluxus Day, presented during Subtropics 19. — City of Miami Beach Certificate of Recognition declaring March 3, 2007, Fluxus Day.

Special thanks to Justin Macdonnell, then artistic director of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts; Jeremy Chestler, then executive director of ArtCenter/South Florida; and the SFCA staff, board members and volunteers without whom this large-scale event would not have been possible.

REFERENCES

Subtropics XIX Newspaper / Program. Subtropics Archive, 2007.

Alison Knowles, “Shoreline at Black’s Beach with Charles Curtis,” Artist Organized Art, February 26, 2008.
https://artistorganizedart.org/commons/2008/02/shorline-at-blacks-beach-with-charles.html