Fluxus und Fotografie

Fluxus & Photography

An Exhibition in St. Petri zu Lübeck

The works on this page are by Anja Teske

Images/works Anja Teske out of:
Ann NOËL and Anja TESKE at St. Petri zu Lübeck

 

Fluxus & Photography

Introduction: Valentin Rothmaler

Translation: Anita-Marie Schuppan

Ann Noel and Anja Teske share a friendship despite the generation gap between them. Ann Noel was born 1944 in England and has been living in Berlin since 1980. Anja Teske was born 1964 in Minden in Westphalia and has been living in Berlin for more than ten years. Ann Noel went to New York in the late 60’s due to a scholarship where she married the artist-writer Emmett Williams (1925-2007) in 1970, one of the founders of the international FLUXUS movement. Anja Teske studied in Hannover and London where she made her masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in media at the Slade School of Fine Arts in 1999.

For their encounter in St.Petri both artists decided on a common theme: Tischdecken / table cloths are the formal setting for the two women who both work in different artistic media. Ann Noel’s works of art are fresh and new as Gourmet fare, Liebhabermesse from 2011: a table cloth with a design woven in, made out of squares, 7 horizontal and 27 vertical rows, that have been painted with quotes referring to food and sleep. Also Anja Teske with the photo of the set table where the meal has already been finished, printed on a table cloth in 2011. And it is no coincidence that the opening of our exhibition is full of pictures of goods and food. Table cloths painted with colorful letters that quote our relationship to eating and sleeping in relation to the previously existing woven patterns, hanging as ready-mades from the arches of our church. Intentionally our exhibition takes place during the season of the Christian Thanksgiving, the Jewish sukkot, the Thanksgiving celebration of North America. The traditional decoration of our churches seems molded into art here, gently moved by the faintest breeze in the nave of the church in the changing light during the course of the day. FLUXUS (lat. flowing) is an international artistic movement that developed simultaneously in the early 60’s in the USA, in Japan and in Germany and is connected to names like George Maciunas (1931-1978) and Nam June Paik (1932-2006), but also John Cage (1912-1992), Yoko Ono (*1933) and Joseph Beuys (1921-1986).

FLUXUS strives for a unity between art and life beyond the gentrified art scene. FLUXUS includes all means of artistic expression like drawing, painting, sculpture, music and performance, video and photography, trying to integrate all these into a new wholeness.

FLUXUS is the second great movement after DADA in the 20th century where action art versus elitist art, trying to find new forms of life. In the meantime there is a museum in Potsdam, FLUXUS +, where Ann Noel was exhibited with Alison Knowles (*1933) in June 2010. From this exhibition we are showing the video FLUXUS HORS-D’OEUVRES D’ART, where Ann Noel shows the preparation of hors-d’oeuvres as a Performance. These are exhibited on the altar on little pieces of canvas. Behind the altar a triptych shows the artist herself, a photo taken by Anja Teske during a lively performance. This kind of cooperation is typical for FLUXUS, famous duos like Joseph Beuys and Henning Christiansen (1932-2008) with „Celtic+~“ or „Eurasienstab“ have become art history in the meantime. This exhibition is about such elemental things as eating and sleeping.

Ann Noel has painted letters on table cloths wanting to evoke new thoughts and associations in you concerning food and sleep. A tower built out of crates has been made into a sound installation by Anja Teske. It inspires you to think about whether it is possible to compare pears and apples. Her pieces of cake are architectual, her heads of lettuce are full of surprises- from all sides. Her wonderful sense of humor is also evident on the table cloths and T-shirts and is also FLUXUS. After having eaten one should rest. So we also find bedclothes and other associations connected to sleeping, eating and drinking by Ann

Noel and Anja Teske. FLUXUS & photography is not only a stave rhyme. Photography is the artistic medium that can freeze movement, frozen Performance on paper and canvas; and movement is primarily what FLUXUS wants: To move you, to evoke new insights in you, points of view you never had of the eatable – seemingly so familiar to us, now at Thanksgiving.