Needles
The Fluxus idea was happen during 1962 to 2002. In the article “Forty Years of Fluxus ” The author Ken Friedman examines the definition of Fluxus and points out that Fluxus is a way of doing things, a tradition, and a way of life and death, rather than an art movement. Moreover, Fluxus is more valuable as an idea and a potential for social change than as a specific group of people.
My project is named Needles and the materials are all from our daily life. They are a part of a white T-shirt, a cloth with lotus, silk cloth, leaves, needles, a wooden box, and color threads. Needles have two different ways for people, so they both can pierce some stuff and repair some gaps. T-shirt represents people, and it is passed through by needles implicates that people are getting hurt, or even countries have issues of the war with the issues of territory. If this issue couldn’t be solved, people will continue getting hurt. Then the next step is people in the class can join into this project to use different materials to repair the hurt. One of the materials is silk cloth, and it has a long history and very expensive at the beginning of China and then it spreads all over the world. People who made this “T-shirt” hurt can use the silk to fix on it. It implies that people or countries give luxury cars and bling to mend your mistake. Moreover, people sewing a cloth of lotus on it or other materials means to treat others kindly because people still need friends to help and accompany with each other and states need to repair their mistakes to renew the business cooperation between countries. Thus I use this idea to express Fluxus.
Fluxus is influenced by Dada, and Dada did happen during World War I, so people hate the war and get hurt from it. Dada was explosive, irreverent, and made much use of humor. So the Dadaists were against traditional Art and used the method of paste to create accidental works. For example, some artists cut out the pictures from newspapers during that moment to satire political facts. Compared to Dada, Fluxus was constructive and was founded on principles of creation. The author Friedman thinks that Fluxus was a laboratory. The research program of the Fluxus laboratory is characterized by twelve ideas of globalism, the unity of art and life, intermedia, chance, experimentalism, playfulness, simplicity, implicativeness, exemplativism, specificity, presence in time, and musicality. The project of Needles fits some of the principles associated with Fluxus.
In my idea, this product inherits the method of paste in Dada to realize it by chance. However, it uses a method of sewing, rather than pasting, to express people’s feelings during that time. This idea can be interactive with many people, and people use many different materials, which are offered inside of the wooden box to sew on the white T-shirt cloth. The result comes out different by chance. It depends on people’s attitude. If some one wants to repair the hurt seriously, then he will choose right materials to sew on it carefully. It implies that some people who hurt to another, he should have serious repentance and a sincere apology.
And it is also Globalism, which is the center of the characteristic of Fluxus, because although the states have boundaries, nature and culture have no boundaries. So Fluxus encourages all human beings to have access to the multiplexed distribution of resources in an environment of shared benefits, common concern and resources.
Since Fluxus happened during the Cold War, so people also feel getting hurt by this war. In the current society, it also means that people gets hurt by others’ languages or violence. No matter who or which country, people need to learn to forgive others in order to renovate their relationship. Although this Art product was made to simplicity and elegance, it contains lots of feelings, so it means that an art work implies many more works. This is my thinking about art and it is implicative.
Fluxus is influence by Pop Art. Andy Warhol was a pragmatist, he thought the best art is business art. Fluxus artists also think that art and life have no boundaries, but they are against business. Beuys suggests that everyone is an artist, and the art is coming from life. So in my product, the materials can be anything to express that people use these to regain a better relationship.
Needles is characterized by five ideas of Fluxus: globalism, the unity of art and life, chance, simplicity, and implicativeness. It is an innovation idea to make people thinking about the relationship or the history.
