GRAVITAS FOR PRANKSTERS
by Michèle C. Cone



"Fluxus and the Essential Questions of Life," an array of over 100 objects from the "memorial collection" of Fluxus factotum George Maciunas (1931-78) at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College (plus additional loans), looks very much like a idea-art curiosity chamber -- something between an archive, a library and a private museum of the type that rich and cultivated European aristocrats in the 17th century filled with odd stuff that they collected, sometimes but not always for their beauty. Many of the items are small compartmentalized boxes -- the archetypal "Fluxkits" -- whose mix of curios spill out when, as is the case here, the boxes are opened. They are displayed on top of blond wood cabinets with glass covers, the contemporary answer to the Renaissance curio cabinet.

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