|
Alison Knowles is an American artist who produces work that incorporates performance, radio, and sound, papermaking, and printmaking. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience. Criteria that have come to distinguish her work as a female artist are the arena of performance, the indeterminacy of her "event scores" resulting in the deauthorization of the work, and the element of tactile participation in her performances and object-based work. She graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York with an honors degree in fine art. Knowles was married to the Fluxus artist and prominent intermedia theorist, Dick Higgins, from 1960 to 1970, and again from 1984 until Higgins' death in 1998.
In the 1960's Knowles was an active participant in New York City's downtown artist community, making work alongside Marcel Duchamp and John Cage. During this time she began producing scores; events that rework everyday activities into performances that incorporate music.
Knowles's performance work incorporates visual, aural, and tactile elements. The aspect of touch is a distinct element that sets Knowles apart from male Fluxus artists. One of her most notable event scores Make a Salad was originally performed in 1962 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. In this event Knowles prepares a massive salad by chopping the ingredients to the beat of live music, mixing flamboyantly by tossing it in the air, then serving the salad to the audience. Make a Salad has since been performed in several cities around the world, including the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2003, the Tate Modern in 2008, and on the High Line in Chelsea, New York in 2012. Shoes of Your Choice also debuted at the same time as Make a Salad at the ICA. For Shoes of Your Choice Knowles asks the audience to describe a pair of shoes he or she owns and share the shoes' history, description, and appealing qualities. The Identical Lunch is an event score intended to be performed by any average citizen in which the performer must assemble and consume wheat toast, butter, tuna fish, lettuce and soup or buttermilk. This score evolved from Knowles's daily meal at Riss Restaurant in Chelsea. The Identical Lunch has since been performed by many of Knowles' artist friends over a period of years.
|
