Happenings, Fluxus And Performance Art Analysis

Performance Art has been a active sector of art in the past century. The origins of this kind of art started in the mid-1950s and has only grown larger. The movement of visual art to a more conceptual, somatic experience was most prominent with the rise of Happenings and the Fluxus movement. Art, as demonstrated by these movements was more than an experience separate from the viewer, but instead a holistic experience that included both mind and body. These movements allowed more interaction between viewer and art piece and brought more conversation to the surface as well as a variety of innovative ways to express one’s self in the visual art world. Before Happenings, Fluxus, and Performance Art, the typical art piece was viewed in a professional …show more content…
A variety of new ideas are sure to have engaged with the audience due to his piece by forcing them to be alone with their minds. Their minds, themselves, are factors and major players of mundane life. The Fluxus movement blurred the boundaries of life and art, calling them one and the same. Looking at art on a broad spectrum, Pre-Modern art contained a lot of easy to understand imagery and symbolism regarding historical and religious purposes for decoration or for function. In contrast, Post-Modern art (including Performance Art), uses the idea of everyday objects or activity to stimulate it’s creations. Honestly, Pre-Modern art was already doing this. Religion was a part of everyday life, as was history. But these ideas were embellished, praised, honored and held in high regards as the most important things in a person’s life. As Post-Modern art came along, the ideas that everyday practices were equally important started to surface. Brushing your teeth wasn’t just a thing to-do, it was something that affected your overall health and attractiveness and thus, your social and economic position in life. In general, “Fluxus was interested in simultaneous experience; its artists were interested in the activities and objects that used unconventional materials and methods to explore the boundaries of art” (Youjin 212). Fluxus performances ranged from “Identical Lunch” in 1967 where Alison Knowles had several performers eat the same lunch at the same time in the same place every day over a span of several days and one called “Danger Music No. 2” where Dick Higgins, Knowles’s husband, receives a haircut from her and the sounds and actions of the audience take over while Higgins and Knowles remain silent. Audience members complained there was no music in the performance while other retorted that the sounds of the audience