Librarian Margit Wilson and artist Margaret Pezalla-Granlund teamed up to make the Walker Art Center’s library an active art space with Fluxus Club, and we’re delighted to host a new series on their work at the Walker Art Center. This is part 2; read the whole series here. Enjoy! ~Erinn
Fluxus Club at the Walker Art Center: Part Two
by Margaret Pezalla-Granlund & Margit Wilson
A few weeks ago, we introduced readers to Fluxus Club at the Walker Art Center, a series of four workshop inspired by the work of Fluxus artists. Throughout this blog series, we are reflecting on the collaboration between the Walker’s Art Lab, a workshop space, and its Library that was so central to the success of Fluxus Club. This week, we’ll discuss how we activated these collective spaces and how the structure of the workshop series supported an iterative process that encouraged collaborative relationships.
Photo by Gene Pittman. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
Fluxus Club convened over four sessions from November 2014 through February 2015, so we had time between sessions to regroup, reflect, and build upon what we learned from the previous month. The very first month, the collaboration was limited, but straightforward: visitors who came to the Art Lab for a hands-on art-making project were pointed to the Library, where a selection of Fluxus catalogues and books were available for browsing. When we debriefed about that evening, two things were clear:
- visitors LOVED the opportunity to explore the library, a space not usually easily accessible to the public; and
- the library could be a site for making, not just browsing.
The possibilities for art-making in the Library were suggested by an encounter with an artist book from the collection: An Anthology of Chance Operations. (Margit reflected on this piece in a blog post for the Walker.) The Anthology includes a poetry machine designed by German-Swiss artist Dieter Roth. Upon sharing this book with visitors during the first session of Fluxus Club, we got the idea that Roth’s machine could easily be replicated to facilitate a Fluxus-inspired activity for visitors. We cut a few circular holes in a piece of white cardstock and we were ready to make poetry. Visitors chose a book from the collection, positioned the poetry tool over a page, and photocopied it. The bits of text and image that showed through the holes comprised the found poem. As an art-making activity, it reflected the Fluxus interest in play, text, and chance. And as a library-based activity, it made good use of library resources: the original Dieter Roth piece as inspiration, the books in the collection, and, of course, the photocopier.
Photo by Gene Pittman. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
With both the Art Lab and the Library activated as making spaces, the spirit and approach of the Fluxus artists made connecting those activities a natural next step. For the December event, we planned a Fluxus-inspired print shop in which visitors collaboratively produced a Fluxus newspaper, complete with headlines, stories, and art. Visitors were invited to make collages or drawings in the Art Lab, or use the Library’s poetry machine to create a visual poem. Activities in the two spaces both worked independently and built on each other, and gave visitors multiple ways of getting involved in the event.
Activities in the two spaces both worked independently and built on each other, and gave visitors multiple ways of getting involved in the event.
Photo by Gene Pittman. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
After the first two sessions, the success of taking Fluxus activity beyond the Art Lab was clear. For the third session we expanded the reach of Fluxus Club into the Walker’s galleries. We asked a tour guide, skilled in initiating conversations with curious visitors, to distribute scores that visitors could perform themselves in the gallery. The scores helped unite the multitude of activities for the night and gave direction to participants.
Courtesy Margaret Pezalla-Granlund.
Back in the Art Lab and Library, the scores continued, directing people to make and do more. In the library, the score resulted in a group poem that was collaboratively typewritten on a scroll. The score sent participants on a type of scavenger hunt through the library as they were instructed to:
Courtesy Margaret Pezalla-Granlund.
This activity encouraged people to explore the library and pull books off the shelves. People loved the invitation to wander and the score seemed to give them a sense of purpose, however simple it might have been. Find a red book. Find the third book to the left. It was art-making for anyone and the decisions, once you found your book, were mostly left to chance.
This activity encouraged people to explore the library and pull books off the shelves…It was art-making for anyone.
Photo by Gene Pittman. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
Ultimately, we learned that the best way to experience Fluxus was to do Fluxus– and that scores, because they worked both as invitation and direction, could play an important role in integrating the spaces and activities. Scores introduced the spirit and concept of Fluxus, oriented visitors to the Fluxus Club activities, encouraged people to move from space to space and to connect their experiences in those diverse places.
Want More?
- Follow along with this series as it develops.
- Check out the Walker Art Center and it’s Library online and on social media.
Margit Wilson is Assistant Librarian at the Walker Art Center, where she oversees the Rosemary Furtak Collection of artist books in addition to maintaining a general collection of library materials devoted to contemporary art. She comes to librarianship with a background in independent publishing and book arts. She received her MLIS from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota and her BA in English and French from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Margaret Pezalla-Granlund is an artist and the curator of library exhibitions atGould Library at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. She has a background in museum education at both science and art museums and has led workshops for the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the St. Paul Public Library. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA and her BA from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.
Author photos by Erin Smith. Courtesy Walker Art Center.
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