2006.55: A Flux Atlas

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2006.55

People

Robert Watts, American (Burlington, IA 1923 - 1988 Martins Creek, PA)
Designed by George Maciunas, American (Kaunas, Lithuania 1931 - 1978 Boston, MA)
Published by Fluxus, American

Title

A Flux Atlas

Classification

Multiples

Work Type

multiple

Date

1973

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/312540

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Mixed media

Technique

Mixed technique

Dimensions

12 x 9 x 2.5 cm (4 3/4 x 3 9/16 x 1 in.)

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

S. 520, ff.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher Fund

Accession Year

2006

Object Number

2006.55

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

A 7-compartment transparent plastic box with offset printed labels on lid, and a second printed label on internal box top listing geographic locations. Each compartment contains a small stone keyed to locations on internal label with handwritten labels.

Commentary

This Fluxus edition is one example of how the members of the geographically-dispersed Fluxus community could work to each other's mutual benefit. In the April, 1973 Fluxnewsletter, Maciunas sent out a call for assistance: "We need about 50 pebbles...from specific and well described locations (country, town vicinity, which beach or shore, which sea, lake or river). This is for a large Geography box by Bob Watts, which will contain pebbles from various parts of the world....All contributors will receive a box in return." In its emphasis on collective artistic production and worldwide geographic distribution, it is closely aligned with works like Mieko (Chieko) Shiomi's series of "Spatial Poems" (M26472-M26475). Where Shiomi's works existed as coordinated but ultimately ephemeral actions, gaining their physical form through the gathering of information, Watts' edition gathers physical matter itself. As is often the case, much of the work necessary to transform the object from a "box of rocks" into a "Flux Atlas" is performed by Maciunas' label design. The compartmentalization of the designation "a flux atlas by bob watts" on the label mirrors the structure of the box's interior. The label's graphic association with a premodern cartographic tradition both indicates that this atlas is founded on actual experience rather than on rational, scientific principles, and participates in the longstanding Fluxus appropriation of outmoded graphic idioms.

Exhibition History

• Multiple Strategies: Beuys, Maciunas, Fluxus, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/24/2007 - 06/10/2007
• 32Q: 1100 60’s Experiment, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 04/07/2017 - 09/27/2017

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