RCA Performance Artists Channel Fluxus Ebb and Flow at White Cube, Bermondsey

Marclay’s own exhibition extends through the gallery spaces to create an immersive experience that uses fluid motifs to challenge the viewer’s perceptions of the boundaries of fine art and studio practice, as well as providing a porous view of visual, performative and audio cultures.

Within this, Marclay has invited artists from the Royal College of Art and other London art schools to perform re-enactments of ‘Water’ works by Fluxus artists including George Brecht, George Maciunas, Yoko Ono and Mieko Shiomi.

RCA Performance pathway students Sandra Stanionyte, Yuki Kobyashi, William Colley and Leon Platt are artists who have worked with water before in their own practice. Utilising the Fluxus artists’ scores, there is a literal reference to Marclay’s installation of found drinking glasses as well as a conceptual nod to the aqueous nature of his installation.

This retrospective and archive of vessels is the setting and backdrop for the RCA students’ work. Weekly and serially, they will develop and extend their chosen Fluxus texts, taking the territory of this seminal, activist historic movement as a call to action, and moving from the original to the contemporary, and their own interests and practices across live and performance work in the here and now.

Starting this week, the performances extend across a period of ten weeks, with the four artists bringing the contemporary and their own practice into conversation with the original performances, activating and inhabiting Marclay’s installed work.

Christian Marclay, White Cube, Bermondsey, 144 – 152 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3TQ
28 January – 12 April 2015
Performances take place 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25 February; 5, 6, 26, 27 March; 7, 8 April
12 noon – 4pm, except 5 Mar 2pm – 4pm

For more information, see White Cube website

Fluxus Water Pieces

Yuki Kobayashi
Yoko Ono, event scores from the collection Grapefruit, 1964
The instructions read:
– Water
– Boil water and watch until it evaporates
– Walk in the footsteps of the person in front… in water. Try not to make sounds. 

Sandra Stanionyte
Mieko Shiomi, Water Music, 1965
Water Music consists of a small bottle partly filled with water. 
The label instructs:
1) Give the water still form
2) Let the water lose its still form

William Colley
Georges Brecht, Three Aqueous Events: Ice Water Steam, 1961
The score reads:
– Ice
– Water
– Steam

Leon Platt
Georges Maciunas, Duet for Full Bottle and Wine Glass, 1962
The score was printed as a list of words. A graph chart is set up with the words running down the side axis. Across the top, numbers are filled in with time designated in blocks of seconds. The score is filled in some manner. Then, when the performance time for each action comes up, that action is performed to generate sound.
The list reads as follows: shaking, slow dripping, fast dripping, small stream, pouring, splashing, opening corked bottle, roll bottle, drop bottle, strike bottle with glass, break glass, gargle, drink, sipping, rinsing mouth, spitting…