Crytoglyph
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Someone Has Done It Before (中文版)

More than just someone was there on August 10 to ensure Someone’s Done It Before.  Here I’m filling up my absence with a “found object,” a beautiful tale by one of the core Fluxus “artists” Dick Higgins:

Long long ago, back when the world was young – that is, some time around the year 1958 – a lot of artists and composers and other people who wanted to do beautiful things began to look at the world around them in a new way (for them).

They said: “Hey! – coffee cups can be more beautiful than fancy sculptures.  A kill in the morning can be more dramatic than a drama by Mr. Fancypants.  The sloshing of my foot in my wet boot sounds more beautiful than fancy organ music.”

And when they saw that, it turned their minds on.  And they began to ask questions.  On question was: “Why does everything I see that’s beautiful like cups and kisses and sloshing feet have to be made into just a part of something fancier and bigger?  Why can’t I just use it for its own sake?”

When they asked questions like that, they were inventing fluxus: but this they didn’t know yet, because fluxus was like a baby whose mother and father couldn’t agree on what to call it – they knew it was there, but it didn’t have a name.

Well, these people scattered all over the world. …

They did “concerts” of everyday living; and they gave exhibitions of what they found, where they shared the things that they liked best with whoever would come.  Everything was itself, it wasn’t part of something bigger and fancier. And the fancy people didn’t like this. …

But these people were scattered all over the world. …

-- from Dick Higgins, “A Child’s History of Fluxus”

Creation myths and myths of origin are like fairy tales.  They indulge in the yearning for impossible beauty.  You are to believe them, not to question or analyze them.

That day in the first gathering of the event, our conversation got to the point when question returned as to how unique, essential the art object is in Conceptual Art.  I didn’t say much in response.  When I got home, I wondered: when Duchamp successfully challenged the tradition of art, questioned the power structure of the art institution, and when he managed to overthrow the normative values of art, would it make any difference if his urinal had been a sink, a basic, a toilet for the female and be the same?

My original plan was to pen down my commentary of the event with the treatise of Conceptual Art.  But someone has done it before!

 

girl
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有人做過。何為創作。為何創作?

《有人做過》令我想起下面這個我拾來的故事:

Long long ago, back when the world was young – that is, some time around the year 1958 – a lot of artists and composers and other people who wanted to do beautiful things began to look at the world around them in a new way (for them).

They said: “Hey! – coffee cups can be more beautiful than fancy sculptures.  A kill in the morning can be more dramatic than a drama by Mr. Fancypants.  The sloshing of my foot in my wet boot sounds more beautiful than fancy organ music.”

And when they saw that, it turned their minds on.  And they began to ask questions.  On question was: “Why does everything I see that’s beautiful like cups and kisses and sloshing feet have to be made into just a part of something fancier and bigger?  Why can’t I just use it for its own sake?”

When they asked questions like that, they were inventing fluxus: but this they didn’t know yet, because fluxus was like a baby whose mother and father couldn’t agree on what to call it – they knew it was there, but it didn’t have a name.

Well, these people scattered all over the world. …

They did “concerts” of everyday living; and they gave exhibitions of what they found, where they shared the things that they liked best with whoever would come.  Everything was itself, it wasn’t part of something bigger and fancier. And the fancy people didn’t like this. …

But these people were scattered all over the world. …

-- from Dick Higgins, “A Child’s History of Fluxus”

Dick Higgins 用孩童的心把 Fluxus 的起源化成幾近純凈無邪的開創(創世)神話。我其實可以借取這個角度,也來寫個“有人做過”八人組的出生成群、或劈石開山、裝置再拆毀的原型式神話。可既然大伙兒一開初就有自知之明,自嘲“有人做過”,我也不必一廂情願。確實,身為年青的創作者(-- 是創作上的年青,不一定是年紀上的),要搞些沒有人搞過的主意真不容易。然而,真正的問題可能牽涉到我們對藝術作品的定義和評價。“沒人做過”(或形式內容上的創新、或洞見) 作為被高舉的因素,指向一種“內容/形式”為本的價值取向,強調藝術物件的本身。“有人做過”如果值得記述,卻是由於藝術行為、行動,或行動背後的概念,甚至是對既定概念的質疑。一個只能在此時此地以“現在進行式”的形態去“參与”的藝術行動,的確對定時定候到藝廊去靜心欣賞,又或遲到冒失的人帶來麻煩。像這次的活動,儘管自己是策劃人之一,我卻如捉迷藏般,第一次武林大會出席了,失望於“藝術家”們小貓三兩,到第二次“武林大會”,我又偏生病,第二天再去,當然門庭冷落,殘餘碎片一地,牆上的字跡照片,也想留個記憶,怎知道眾人都說:“那天真妙!你怎麼沒來?” … 本來,我想在這裏談談“概念藝術”的思維与動机。後來,還是覺得發個牢騷罷了。