Happenings (Alan Kaprow)

The book 'Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life' by Alan Kaprow and edited by
Jeff Kelly begins with an introduction where Jeff Kelly describes an American
philosopher who he thought greatly influenced Kaprow, in terms of 'time' and far
eastern philosophy, the artist career as being the inventor of 'Happenings' "a late
-fifties art form in which all manner of materials, colors, sounds, odors, and
common objects and events were orchestrated in ways that approximated the
spectacle of modern everyday life" .
After which the writer describes how Kaprow had written extensively about the
nature of experience and its relationship to the practice(s) of art in our time. They
show a development of the artist Kaprow as well as contemporary art from his point
of view. Jeff also notes that television had not taken over our private space and that
computers were primitive at best at the time Kaprow wrote his essays.
Jeff later mentions Greenberg in terms of someone who might of created a
"modernist 'law' that spoke about conventions that are not essential to the validity
of the medium being 'discarded as soon as they are recognized', and that what
Kaprow did was to turn that prescription on its head- not by resorting to chaos but
setting out to systematically eliminate precisely those conventions that were essential
to the professional identity of art (a reverse renunciation). In their place he
embraced the conventions of everyday life- brushing teeth, getting on a bus,
dressing in front of a mirror, telephoning a friend- each with its own formal, if
provisional, integrity."
Later in the introduction Jeff points out that 'The Legacy of Jackson Pollock' (1958)
as being the first important essay written by Alan Kaprow, and gives a little insight
into what in entails, and then states that for some the essay is the most seminal of
Kaprow's essays. Jeff writes more about what Pollock did, the influence on Kaprow
this had, and how Jackson Pollock's death at the hight of his career had been
parabolic with the fate of Modernist art. There was a limit to how far you can go
with modernist art that Kaprow felt Pollock must of felt he was on the verge of but
couldn't get to.
Kaprow is described as wanting to 'avoid making art of any kind' in his later essay
"Un-Artist", he wrote about nonart-lint gathering on the floor, the vapour trail of a
missile- something that is seen and inspires artists but that hasn't been accepted as
art yet, made with the avoidance of making any art, of letting go, so art might lose
its self, the un-artist's goal.
Jeff writes that for Kaprow the task ahead meant one of restoring "participation in
the natural design through conscious emulation of its non artistic features." Later in
his second "Un-Artist" essay he charts the course from art to life that begins with
copying, moved through play, and ended with participation. "Non art he said was
the art of resemblance in which 'old something' is recreated as a 'new something
that closely fits the old something.' In other words, its thoughtful form of copying.
Moreover, because life imitates itself already - city plans, for instance, are like the
human circulatory system and computers are like the brain- nonart is a matter of
imitating imitation. Given the mythologies of originality that underwrite the avant-
garde, what better means of escaping "art" than by copying?
Play (perhaps just a dirtyier word in the lexion of seriouse art than copying) was key
to what Kaprow did, the work had a child like innocents that contradicted the
dullness of working and winning a place in the world Kaprow would write in his
essays that artists "need simply play as they once did under the banner of art, but
among those who do not care about that. Gradually." he concludes,"the pedigree
'art' will recede into irrelevance."
"Participation- especially when it is catalysed in play- would transform the
participant as well as the game" Kelly writes "Kaprow likes to remember those
strains of modernism that keep trying to lose them selfs, playfully, in whatever else
they are like. As an artist, he holds himself accountable for the thresholds he
crosses. He is a true avant-gardist who actually follows through on the crossings he
invites himself to make- and invites us to participate in making."
The american philosopher Kelly writes might of most importantly influenced
Kaprow to becoming an 'experimental artist'. "Kaprow's definition of experimental
art links it to experiences outside of art, suggesting that he believes in the
meaningfulness of all experience and of any art that might account for it. As an
experimental artist he accounts for that meaningfulness with method."
having a scientific approach to making, using methods which replace the classical
and romantic approach of art-style with the order and chaos of common experience,
which is already full of life style. "Meaning emerges, not from the enactment of high
drama, but from the low drama of enactment- not from the content in art, but from
the the art in content. Carry enough cinderblocks, follow the plan, and meaning will
emerge. That is the common faith that Kaprow has.
Kaprow in the introduction has written 'On the Way to Un-Art' and it begins with
him writing this; "Art sometimes begins and ends with questions. A big question for
me in the mid 50s and 60s was What is Art?" Kaprow then describes that he
thought the answer to that question was the Happening. The he goes on to describe
the freshness that he felt these happening posed, and the decisions he made to keep
it fresh. These included not exhibiting in galleries or institutions connected to art,
but to purposefully stray away from these and instead to create Happenings in loft
spaces, disused shop unit, elevators, streets, and to make thses one night only events.
It is important to note that during the week from nine to five (so to speak) Kaprow
worked in the art institution as a educator so he describes peoples opion of him as
having one foot in the past and one in the future.
"I had a job fortunately, and so I was able to experiment. My audience (never large)
was reduced further to a handfull of participants plus the accidental passerby who
was invitd to join the activity. Participants would voulenteer to take part in a task
explained in advance:
Build a tower of used Coca-Cola cans
Making a lot of noise
Tearing it down