What Has Fluxus Created?

Abstract

A brief survey of current Fluxus-based practices and their relation to historical Fluxus opens an essay that examines current Fluxus-based practice. The author focuses on artists active in Fluxlist, an Internet discussion list that serves as a central locus of current Fluxus activity. Klefstad moves on to discuss the contentious problem of canonicity in Fluxus, reflecting on the changing role of the art canon in an era of artistic innovation. In such a time, the author contends, critical categories can no longer be the basis of canon construction. Instead, collectors and arts institutions create the canon and the rise in economic value of selected artifacts determines their canonical status. At the same time, the exclusive — and exclusionary — nature of the canon helps to establish and reinforce economic value. A complex network of economic and political dynamics points to a central question that asks how such anti-canonical groups such as Fluxus can relate to the possibility of such a canon. Klefstad concludes by proposing that the continuing spirit of Fluxus is found in the actions of those excluded from the canon.