2006.260: A Flux Atlas

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2006.260

People

Robert Watts, American (Burlington, IA 1923 - 1988 Martins Creek, PA)

Title

A Flux Atlas

Classification

Multiples

Work Type

multiple

Date

20th century

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/315219

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Mixed media

Dimensions

22.7 x 33.2 x 5.9 cm (8 15/16 x 13 1/16 x 2 5/16 in.)

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Edition

17/71

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Barbara Moore

Accession Year

2006

Object Number

2006.260

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

A 24-compartment transparent plastic box with printed label on lid. Each compartment contains a small stone and printed label identifying geographic locations.

Commentary

This is a larger version of the Robert Watts "Flux Atlas" already in the collection. As with so many other Fluxus editions, "Flux Atlas" was produced in serveral variants over the years. Unlike the version already in the collection, this object is a "ReFlux" edition. Maciunas tended to have a store of materials (boxes, labels, and--in this case--rocks) and would produce the theoretically unlimited Fluxus editions in batches as demand dictated. ReFlux was founded by Barbara Moore after Maciunas's death as a way to continue, in accordance with his wishes, to publish Fluxus editions using his existing stock of materials. Because there were many more labels and box "contents" than there were boxes, ReFlux editions often use new boxes obtained from Maciunas's original supplier in the same configurations as the vintage editions. In order to differentiate them from the "vintage" editions (a slightly perverse compromise, given Maciunas's attitudes), each piece of vintage material employed is stamped or blind-stamped "ReFlux." In traditional terms, such objects have the conceptual status of "authorized" posthumous impressions of the sort issued by artists' estates.

Like it's vintage counterpart, this 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

• 32Q: 1100 60’s Experiment, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/10/2019 - 10/04/2021

Verification Level