John CAGE, Philip CORNER & Alison KNOWLES: Mushrooms, Carrots & Beans

Curated by Jade Dellinger (in partnership with the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College)

With special events during Artwalk Gainesville on Friday, April 26th from 7-10pm

The 4MOST Gallery at University of Florida is pleased to partner with the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College to present “John CAGE, Philip CORNER & Alison KNOWLES: Mushrooms, Carrots & Beans” (an exhibition curated by Jade Dellinger).

Most heavily inspired by the concepts of John Cage, Fluxus art often relied on chance to shape the outcome and actively involved the viewer. Fluxus compositions for performance involved simple actions, ideas, and objects from everyday life – non-traditional art-making materials - often including food.  As the exhibition title indicates, mushrooms, carrots and dried beans were frequently explored (and consumed) through the event scores and artwork of Cage and Fluxus colleagues/peers Alison Knowles and Philip Corner.  In the late 1950’s, John Cage taught both a hugely influential Experimental Music course (at times attended by Knowles, Corner and others) and a concurrent class at the New School in NYC on Mushroom Identification before cofounding the New York Mycological Society in 1962.  According to Cage, “I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom.”

As many of the Fluxus artists had formal training in music, musical composition and performance, the alteration, misuse or abuse of traditional instruments became central to their activity.  But, as with Alison Knowles’ seminal “Bean Garden” installation and Philip Corner’s participatory “Carrot Chew” (1964) score, the consumption of vegetables and legumes provided both musical inspiration and ample food for thought.  According to exhibition curator Jade Dellinger: “A primary goal of most Fluxus artists was to destroy any boundary between art and life - using humor to mock the elitist world of ‘high art’ and to bring these experiences to the widest possible audience.  John Cage, Phil Corner and Alison Knowles reacted against the commodification of art, its commercialization in the gallery system, and its static presentation in museums.  Games were created and play was encouraged, so this 4Most Gallery Fluxus show may get visitors thinking differently about what they put on their plate.”

About the Curator

Jade DELLINGER has served more than five years as Director of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers.  With an M.A. in Arts Administration from New York University, Jade has collaborated on curatorial projects with major museums in the U.S., Europe, Mexico and South America for more than two decades prior to his arrival at FSW.  Beginning his career with the Contemporary Art Museum at U.S.F./Tampa, he curated Keith Edmier’s EK/KE project (a collaborative exhibition with legendary motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel) in 1997, and worked closely with the sculptor and new collaborator – 70’s pop icon - Farrah Fawcett on a show for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in the mid-aughts.  Dellinger has organized major solo and two-person museum shows for such artists as Yoko Ono, Ann Hamilton, James Franco, Wayne White, Allan McCollum, Bob Rauschenberg, Keith Haring, Ed Ruscha, Peter Greenaway and Jack Kerouac.  He has written for international publications including Sculpture, Flash Art, Art Papers and Guitar Aficionado; and co-authored the book Are We Not Men? We are DEVO! (SAF Publishing Ltd., UK 2003/2008), which traces the history of the seminal 1980s New Wave band.  In celebration of the 2012 birth centenary of the influential composer and visual artist John Cage, Dellinger’s curatorial projects Things Not Seen Before: A Tribute to John Cage and John Cage’s 22-1/3 – Performed by Audience were presented at the Tampa Museum of Art, Tempus Projects and at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at FSW, before traveling in expanded form as For John Cage at 100 to the National Gallery of Art in Tbilisi, Georgia.

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