alt.gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Preview: Monday 10 November 2008, 7 - 9pm
Exhibition: 11 November - 24 January 2009
You are invited to the preview of MiniFlux by UK artist Hayley Newman.
MiniFlux is a collection of over 1000 props used or referenced in Fluxus musical scores, made into roughly worked miniature plasticine models. These are accompanied by a printed list of all the objects, which range from a full orchestra and an elephant to a tuba and a piano.
Hayley Newman has a long interest in Fluxus strategies, events and humour; in particular how everyday objects are used in performance work. A Fluxus music score was a series of notes that freely allowed anyone to perform any kind of work from the score. The reader could perform the work in a concert situation, at home or simply through their imagination. Many of these notated performances require props, and it is these objects that the artist has presented in miniature plasticine representations. Music played a central role for Fluxus artists, influenced by John Cage's compositional strategies and the notion of chance in art. MiniFlux includes a wide range of musical instruments, in addition to the items often used to attack instruments including saws, hammers and a tractor.
MiniFlux encourages audiences to actively look and make connections between the list and the collection of plasticine sculptures. The list may suggest new performances in the minds of the readers and therefore the list itself becomes another score. The installation celebrates Fluxus's humour and vitality and moves away from photographic documentation as the central object of performance art.
Hayley Newman has performed and exhibited widely and has had solo shows at Matt's Gallery, London, Ikon, Birmingham and the Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva. Recent group exhibitions include Chronic Epoch, Beaconsfield, London and Live Culture, Tate Modern, London. In 2005 MiniFlux took place in the context of the exhibition Her Noise at South London Gallery, commissioned by Electra Productions.
MiniFlux 2005. Courtesy of the artist and Matt's Gallery, London. Commissioned by Electra Productions.
MiniFlux will be the last exhibition at alt.gallery. The gallery closes on 24 January 2009 after eight successful exhibitions for the curator to focus on her new role as Director of AV Festival, the biennial international festival of electronic arts, music and moving image in the North East of England. Thanks to everyone for their generous support for the gallery, and in particular to alt.vinyl record shop and The Wire magazine for their ongoing support.
alt.gallery (entry via alt.vinyl), 61 Thornton Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4AW
Open: Mon - Sat 11am-6pm
mail@altgallery.org / www.altgallery.org <http://www.altgallery.org/>
Supported by:
Arts Council England
alt vinyl, www.altvinyl.com <http://www.altvinyl.com/>
Media Sponsor:
The Wire magazine, www.thewire.co.uk
Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number SC009201
