If Monday were even a few degrees warmer, there might have been a huge pool of water on the plaza between Pick-Staiger and Block. Instead, two structures made of large ice blocks stood (nearly) defiantly as poncho-donning students and community members built up their walls.
"It's a fantastic way to involve people with art in a way that's very nontraditional," said Burke Patten, Communications Manager at the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art.
As a collaboration between Block and the Department of Art Theory & Practice, the event was a re-staging of conceptual artist Allan Kaprow's "Fluids," led by Professor Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle and his students in the class "Alternative to the Object."
"Fluids" as a concept was created by Kaprow, who coined the term "happening" — an event or situation performed for artistic reasons. "Fluids" was first executed in 1967 but Kaprow meant for it to be staged again in the future by others. This marks the first time "Fluids" was reenacted in the Midwest. Approximately 375 blocks of ice were used and the structures will remain until they melt away, which may range from eight hours to two days.
"We look at the possibility of art as life, art as experience, art as idea, art as gesture," said Manglano-Ovalle. "It's a class that is great because we actually stay away from any particular medium and we stay away from making an object." The students read about various radical artists — including Kaprow — and was granted permission from Kaprow's estate to re-enact "Fluids."
In the spirit of avoiding the object, various participants wore shirts with a drawing of the ice structure and the caption, "This is not an object."
"It resists being museum-ified," said Lisa Corrin, Block's director. "You can see it's melting, you couldn't ever put this in a gallery with all that water melting."
Corrin saw the event as a way for the Block to facilitate a closer connection between the academic community and the museum as well as to foster student ideas. "[The students] were intrigued by the fact that [Kaprow's] works asks all the big questions that a young artists should be asking, like 'what is a work of art?'" said Corrin. "So immediately I think this was an artist that appealed to them because — as they're thinking themselves about being an artist in the future — these are the kinds of questions they're asking."
Communication junior Charles Schultz, a student in Manglano-Ovalle's class, questioned the context of the staging. "I was sad because it's taking at a museum, which kind of technically makes it not a happening," he said. "Allan Kaprow wanted happenings to avoid an art context as much as possible. This seems more to be embracing the art context rather than eschewing it."
Nevertheless, Manglano-Ovalle emphasized the participatory aspect of the staging. "We have nine students and there are more than 50 people here," he said. "So the community is no longer the audience — they're participants. That's the hope with a piece like this. It's an idea of sharing authorship."
Indeed, the event drew students and community members of all ages to the plaza. "It's just really exciting to see all this bustling life and all these people collaborating," said Schultz. "It feels like a party, which Kaprow would've liked."