Fluxus Codex

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The Fluxus movement melded the tricks of Dada, the economy of Conceptualism and the collectivist spirit of Russian Constructivism to produce deliberately ephemeral and easily forgettable works. Fluxus artists made some witty, subversive objects, like Joe Jones's Violin in Bird Cage . To challenge our conventional notions, they created transparent dresses, a box filled with chromed earthworms, dollar-bill toilet paper, collections of rocks marked by weight, ceiling hatches, fashion handbills, ``Here I Come'' sweatshirts. Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Willem de Ridder and the group's ``resident genius'' George Maciunas were among the experimenters in the Fluxus orbit. Their inventions are much less revolutionary than the artists seem to think they are, more like private jokes than disturbing works of art. Hendricks is curator of the Lilia and Gilbert Silverman Fluxus collection, which this hefty tome catalogues. Its dictionary format with thousands of entries is well suited to the motley anarchy of this group. (Dec.)