Ken Friedman: 92 Events
Friedman’s scores are a welcome respite, providing a model for how art might function as a mental game where the imagination roams when our bodies can't.
Description
‘92 Events’ presents works spanning six decades by American Fluxus artist Ken Friedman. Friedman’s instructional texts navigate a fine line between sculptural proposition, absurdist action, and concrete poetry, as is fitting given his connections to Fluxus, the international movement that developed its anarchic approach to art making from the 1950s through to the present. Friedman’s playful but profound scores are a welcome respite in this current moment, providing a fitting model for new ways of envisaging how art might function as a mental game where the imagination can roam even if our bodies can’t.
Ken Friedman (1949, New London Connecticut) joined Fluxus in 1966 on the invitation of Fluxus co-founder George Maciunas, as the youngest member of the group. He subsequently worked closely with artists and composers associated with Fluxus such as Dick Higgins, Nam June Paik, John Cage and others. He was instrumental in establishing Fluxus West which was designed as a gathering point for Fluxus-related activities in the western states of America, but also extended its reach to Germany and the UK in the late 1960s and 1970s. In 1971 he participated in New Zealand post-object artist and composer Philip Dadson’s Earthworks a ‘composition’ for film and audiotape realised simultaneously at fifteen locations across the globe. Friedman has pursued an academic career in addition to his art practice and is currently Professor of Design Innovation Studies at Tongji University in Shanghai, China.
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