Currently Speaking: "Fluxus: Art Performs Life" with John Killacky and Sean Clute

John Killacky and Sean Clute will first present a series of original Fluxus films on loop (5-5:30pm), followed by a presentation (5:30-6pm) on the history of the Fluxus art movement, during which they will discuss renowned artists such as Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik, whose provocative actions challenged existing art norms in the 1960s. Following the formal presentation, the pair will showcase their collaborative 14-minute video, FLUX, which was inspired by this seminal but forgotten art movement and then hold a brief Q&A before the event concludes at 6:30pm. The 1960s Fluxus art movement included unconventional artists, inspired by Marcel Duchamp and John Cage, who created intermedia performative events that utilized simple and playful instructions and welcomed others to participate in, as well. These artists challenged the very notion of authorship and how art is made, presented, and received. Their radical aesthetic notions influenced subsequent happenings, performance art events, and postmodernist works where distinctions between art and life were erased and common day activities celebrated.

John Killacky served two terms in the Vermont House of Representatives. Previously he was executive director of Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, program officer for arts and culture at the San Francisco Foundation, executive director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and curator of performing arts for Walker Art Center. He received the First Bank Award Sally Ordway Irvine Award in Artistic Vision, the William Dawson Award for Programming Excellence from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Dance USA's Ernie Award as an unsung hero, Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award for Exemplary Service to the Field of Professional Presenting, and Vermont Arts Council's Kannenstine Award for Arts Advocacy. Killacky has served as a panelist, lecturer, and consultant for a broad range of arts and funding organizations. He has written numerous publications on the arts and written and directed several award-winning short films and videos. His videos have been screened in festivals, galleries, museums, hospitals, and universities worldwide and are in the collections of numerous libraries and universities.

Sean Clute is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and performer who experiments with technologies and methodologies to construct audiovisual instruments, sensor-based interfaces, and computer-generative processes. Clute’s work has been presented internationally at venues such as The Kitchen, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Museum of Natural History, REDCAT Theater, Eastern Bloc (Montreal), Primo Piano LivinGallery (Lecce), and Museum of Contemporary Art and Planning Exhibition (Shenzen). Recognition includes the Fulbright Award, Meet the Composer’s Metlife Creative Connections Grant, Zellerbach Family Foundation Grant, Djerassi Artist-In-Residency, and MuseumsQuartier Wien Artist in Residency, Austria. Clute has lectured at universities including the ICST Institute for Computer Music and Sound, Zurich, Switzerland, Institut Intermédií, Prague, Czech Republic, Pécsi Tudományegyetem Művészeti Kar, Pécs, Hungry, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Austria, University of Arizona, Mills College and University of California Berkeley. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Digital Art at Vermont State University.

The Currently Speaking series hosts experts in various contemporary art genres and media to encourage casual discourse and meaningful interactions between our community, speakers, and the art they showcase.

All series events are free to the public with a suggested donation of $10. No reservation is required, and the gallery will be open beforehand for viewing the current exhibition, A Place of Memory. Refreshments will be served.