Statement

Thirty Years of Fluxing Around - Cecil Touchon 2005

There are those things which artists often do as their ‘serious work’ and then there are all of the other things they do when they are playing and messing around in the studio or when hanging out with other artists. That range of other things tends to be fluxus-like in nature. More concept based, experimental, contemplative, humorous, and expressed in a kind of private short hand. When translated into a more public language you have work that may appear unfinished, tentative, and with a lot of open ended and very loose ends.

I think of this kind of art making as more conversational than lecture-like in nature, more private, informal, ephemeral and downright immaterial. This kind of art activity is the product of a shared mercurial mind world where unfettered creativity, lucid imagination and the immediate cognition of a deeply intuitive mind are of the greatest value.

I think this is why some like to relate Fluxus to Zen. I think Zen has a strong interest in this same range of mental activity in search of those moments of creative release and intuitive cognition of the spiritual world – a more fluid state that we are normally not cognizant of. Not that I can claim to know anything about Zen or for that matter Fluxus.

A lot of the well known Fluxsters are well known in part because of their interest in performance, theatre and experimental music/sound. These things tend to be done live and in public via scheduled performances, festivals and the like.

I am primarily a visual artist. While I have engaged in the occasional performance, they have always been in the form of a personal ritual accomplished for my own internal reasons and have required no one other than myself as their witness with the location usually being my studio or out in nature.

It was never my fortune or misfortune to ever meet up with any well known Fluxus people in person. I have never been that interested. I have never been very interested in meeting anybody that didn’t find their way naturally into my life. Artists are happy to admire and interact from afar and across time and with the internet we are able to interact right in the contemporary moment with each other all over the world.

So anything of mine that could be regarded as Fluxus-like over the years was developed in relative isolation until coming across the fluxlist gang on the internet around 1998-99. When I did I was amazed to find a family of people still working who shared a very strong affinity with my way of seeing the world.

I spend a lot of time with Fluxus after that and was especially moved by Ken Friedman’s amazingly clear headed way of looking at things. He may or may not be altogether right in all of his ideas – I really couldn’t say - but he is definitely clear headed about them and you have to admire that. I consider him an inspiration in my work since about the year 2000.

My main Fluxus-like activities since that time are in the realm of collage poetry and collage sound works. I have also been compiling early works that fit the fluxus profile that go back to as early as 1975 meaning that this year 2005 represents a thirty year mark.

Aside from these things, a broader activity of mine has been working to short circuit the idea that an art movement has a beginning, middle and end usually of a very short duration and involving a very small circle of associates. With the internet and mass communication I do not believe that movements have such a cut and dry history or that they involve so few people.

I notice that things, especially ideas and the influence of objects that contain ideas, live in a continuum and spread like a virus into the minds of artists all over the world and across many generations. I do not believe historians want to deal with the fact that all art movements are still being played out by whatever artists decide to embody them. This spread across barriers I think is especially notable in Fluxus history with its use of an international mail network and the continued life and influence Fluxus clearly still has on the current internet generation.

Art, since it is not fashion that is here today and gone tomorrow, moves in large multi generational waves and any artist is, at any given time, a conduit for one or several artistic trends. Artists embody the ideas that are still being played out and the tug is always between fresh, new adaptation and a love of nostalgic regress. Both have their place and should be experienced as pleasantly coexisting impulses.

So, as the old Fluxus starts to dry out a bit and wrinkle, new blood should feel free to pick up anything anywhere and continue happily along. Let no one stop you, time is a sharp blade, the field always remains freshly plowed.

Bio

Education

St. Louis Community College at Florisant Valley, St. Louis, MO

North Texas State University, Denton, Texas University of Texas at Arlington, Texas

Solo Exhibitions

2011

Quintenz and Company Fine Arts Aspen, Colordo

New Works - Emily Amy Gallery – Atlanta, Georgia

Fluxus Language/Taoist Geometry– Cohn Drennan Gallery – Dallas, Texas (two person show)

2010



The Art of Collage – Nuart Gallery – Santa Fe, New Mexico

The New Beautiful - William Campbell Contemporary Art – Fort Worth, Texas



2009

Collage - Sears Peyton Gallery - New York City, New York

Cecil Touchon at Emily Amy Gallery - Atlanta, Georgia

2008



New Work - Gilman Contemporary - Ketchum, Idaho

Then and Now - Longview Museum of Fine Arts - Longview, Texas

2007

New Work – bsgmodern – Atlanta, Georgia

Patch the 4th Wall – New Gallery – Houston, Texas

2006

New Works – The Marshall Gallery – Scottsdale, AZ USA

Visual Poetry - William Campbell Contemporary Art (Feb 2006) Fort Worth, Texas

All that Jazz - Cache Contemporary - Los Angeles, California

2005

New Work - Sears Peyton Gallery New York, New York

2004

New Collage Works - Casa del Artista - Cuernavaca, Mexico

2003

Recent Works by Cecil Touchon - Casa del Artista - Cuernavaca, Mexico

Exhibition at the New Gallery in Houston, Texas Massurrealist Overload: A View from the Future

2001

Cidnee Patrick Gallery - Dallas, Texas

At Play in the Utopian Matrix Exhibition at William Campbell Contemporary Art in Fort Worth, Texas

2000

Edith Baker Gallery - Dallas, Texas - Oct.

1999

Exhibition at Sears/Peyton Gallery in New York City,

Exhibition at the New Gallery in Houston, Texas.

Studio Exhibition in Cuernavaca, Mexico

1998

Exhibition at William Campbell Contemporary Art in Fort Worth, Texas

Exhibition at the Edith Baker Gallery

1997

The New Gallery, Houson, TX

1996

Edith Baker Gallery, Dallas, TX

1995

William Campbell Contemporary Art Ft. Worth, TX

The New Gallery, Houston, TX

1994

Allene LaPides Gallery Santa Fe, NM

Edith Baker Gallery, Dallas, TX 1993

Allene LaPides Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth, Texas

1992

'Trans-Temporal Dialog', Edith Baker Gallery, Dallas, Texas

The New Gallery, Houston, Texas

Elliot Smith Gallery, St. Louis, Mo.

1991

Markel/Sears, New York, NY

Elliot Smith Gallery, St. Louis, Mo.

1990

William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth, Texas

1989

Longview Museum & Arts Center, Longview, Texas

1988

William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Read/Stremmel Gallery, San Antonio, Texas

1985

'Constructions' William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth, Texas

1984

Works On Paper- 280 Gallery, University Of Texas, Arlington,Texas

Group Exhibitions

2011

TROYART International Exhibition at MuBE - Museu Brasileiro da Escultura - San Paulo, Brazil

Fluxfest Texas – an evening of Fluxus Performance at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, Texas

Fluxfest Chicago – Part of: Art and Its Audience - Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois USA (6 days of avant garde performance and exhibitions)

Convocatória de Arte Postal - "Cabana dos Parodiantes" Salvaterra de Magos, Portugal

TEXTILE 11 / Kaunas Biennial , Lithuania - George Maciunas and Beyond : Fluxus Never Stops

Write Now: Artists and Letterforms - Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Illinois Artists include: Nick Adam, Teresa Albor, Dylan Allread, Aviva Alter, Rahmaan “Statik” Barnes, Catherine Bouzide, Drury Brennan, Stephanie Brooks, Tom Burtonwood, Derek Chan, Erik DeBat, Louis DeMarco, Michael Dinges, Dzine, Ken Fandell, Samuel Feinstein, Doug Fogelson, Mike Genovese, Aron Gent, Mario Gonzalez Jr., Dan Grzeca, Matthew Hoffman, Jo Hormuth, Cody Hudson, Industry of the Ordinary, Matt Irie, Carol Jackson, Kathleen Judge, Amos Kennedy, Chad Kouri, BJ Krivanek, Jason Lazarus, Harold Mendez, Adelheid Mers, Jason Messinger, Eddwin Meyers, Ray Noland, Todd Palmer, Jason Pickleman, Jaume Plensa, John Pobojewski, Karen Reimer, Bud Rodecker, Matt Rose, Joel Ross, John Santoro, Zach Shrey, Matt Siber, Nicholas Sistler, Buzz Spector, Christine Tarkowski, Scott Thomas, Michael Thompson, Tom Torluemke, Cecil Touchon, Rick Valicenti, Nathan Veach, Daniel Warren, Ian Weaver, Ian Whitmore, Bernard Williams & Fluxus Mail Art and Concrete Poetry.

2010

Black and White – The Works of Shelley Reed, Al Held, Robert Mapplethorpe and Cecil Touchon – J. Johnson Gallery, Jacksonville Beach, FL

Skylab Mailart Visual Poetry Exhibit - Skylab Gallery in Columbus, Ohio in concurrence and after the Avant Writing Symposium at The Ohio State University

Lost + Found: The Art of Collage at Northern Kentucky University - Highland Hts, KY

Fluxface in Space – A Fluxmuseum International Digital Exhibition aboard the last two Space Shuttle Missions (#133 and #134) using Nasa’s Face In Space Project. Conceived by Gary Bibb and Cecil Touchon

Abstract Fort Worth – Jane Helslander, Winter Rusilosky and Cecil Touchon - Curated by Mark Thistlethwaite at Gallery 76102 (a Space of UTArlington) Fort Worth, Texas

Hat-itecture at Gabriela Ligenza for the London Architecture Festival – London, England - Group show of artist and architect created hats – participants: Austin + Mergold, Jane Bowler, Anne Laure Carruth, Feix & Merlin, Ruth Ferreira, Riita Ikonen, Bethan Kay, Himanshee Khanna & Fariba Soltani, Klassnik Corporation, Lucie Reuter, Superfusionlab, Cecil Touchon, you&me

Homecoming – Four Fluxus Artists – Cecil Touchon, Larry Miller, John M. Bennett and Keith Buchholz - Curated by Keith Buchholz at the Regional Arts Center, Saint Louis, Missouri

Greetings from Daddaland: Fluxus, Mail Art and Rubber Stamps – Stendhal Art Gallery –New York City, New York

The Last Vispo at Common Ground Art Gallery - Windsor, Ontario Canada. Then the show traveled to Smolensk, Russia, Moscow, Russia & The International Poetry Festival in Budapest, Hungary mIEKAL AND (U.S.A.), Hartmut Andryczuk (Germany), Petra Backonja (U.S.A.), Michael Basinski (U.S.A.), Guy R. Beining (U.S.A.), Marc Bell & Jason McLean (Canada), John M. Bennett (U.S.A.), Carla Bertola (Italy), Jaap Blonk (Holland), Chrisitan Bok (Canada), Daniel f. Bradley (Canada), Nancy Burr (U.S.A.), Mike Cannell (England), David Baptiste Chirot (U.S.A.), Jo Cook (Canada), Judith Copithorne (Canada), Klaus Peter Dencker (Germany), Brian Dettmer (U.S.A.), Fabio Doctorovich (Argentina), Maria Damon (U.S.A.), Amanda Earl (Canada), Shayne Ehman (Canada), Greg Evason (Canada), Oded Ezer (Israel), Luc Firens (Belgium), Angela Genusa (U.S.A.), Jesse Glass (Japan), Robert Grenier (U.S.A.), Bob Grumman (U.S.A.), Scott Helmes (U.S.A.), Geof Huth (U.S.A.), Serkan Isin (Turkey), Michael Jacobson (U.S.A.), Karl Jirgens (Canada), Alexander Jorgensen (U.S.A.), Chris Joseph (England), Joe Keppler (U.S.A.), Dirk Krecker (Germany), Edward Kuleman (Russia), Jim Leftwich (U.S.A.), Troy Lloyd (U.S.A.), Carlos M. Luis (U.S.A.), Jeurgen O. Olbrich (Germany), Sonja Ahlers (Canada), Donato Mancini (Canada), Cy Machina (Canada), Keiichi Nakamura (Japan), Marko Niemi (Finland), Rea Nikonova (Russia), Christopher Olsen (Canada), Clemente Padin (Uruguay), Michael Peters (U.S.A.), Nick Piombino (U.S.A.), Ross Priddle (Canada), e.g. vajda (U.S.A.), Marilyn Rosenberg (U.S.A.), Jenny Sampirisi (Canada), Suzan Sari (Turkey), Serge Segay (Russia), Douglas Spangle (U.S.A.), Litsa Spathi (Greece), Pete Spence (Australia), Matina Stamatakis (U.S.A.), Miroljub Todorovic (Serbia), Cecil Touchon (U.S.A.), Aysegul Tozeren (Turkey), Stephen Vincent (U.S.A.), Reid Wood (U.S.A.) and James Yeary (U.S.A.).

2009

Fluxfest at Pierogi’s The Boiler – Fluxus score performed - Booklyn, NY

A Book About Death – Emily Harvey Foundation - New York City, New York - Otis College of Art and
Design in Los Angeles - The Mobius Gallery in Boston, MA - The Queens Museum, Queens New York - part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art - The Los Angeles County Museum of Art Research Library - MUBE: Museu Brasileiro da Escultura, Sao Paulo, Brazil, MoMA Wales, Exit11 in Belgium, San Diego State University, San Diego, Ca.

DECENNIAL - Joseph Gierek Fine Art – Tulsa, Oklahoma

“Ten Artists,” includes Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Robert Mars, Jasper Johns Jo-Ann Lizio, Cecil Touchon and Troy Abbott – Art Modern Gallery – Naples, Florida

Fluxhibition #3 - E. H. Hereford University Center Gallery at the University of Texas at Arlington – Arlington, Texas – Curated by Cecil Touchon

BFA Show at The University of Texas at Arlington, Texas

Under The Influence – International Exhibition at the Longview Fine Arts Museum – Longview Texas participating artists from, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and the USA.

VENICE BIENNIAL # 53 - Mercury House One - Save the Poetry - Biennale di Venezia – Venice, Italy

Red – Nuart Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico – Cecil Touchon,  Alberto Gálvez, Howard Hersh, Erin Cone, Michael Kessler, Lilita Postaza, Randall Reid, Santiago Pérez, Rob Douglas, Jorge Leyva, Lea Bradovich 

 2008 
: New and Improved Fluxus: Fluxhibition #2 - Classic and Contemporary Scores, Instructions and Artifacts by Fluxus Artists - The Fort Worth Community Arts Center - Fort Worth, Texas. Works by Angelo Ricciardi, Antonio Picardi, Jamie Newton, Allan Revich, Lorraine Kwan, Gregory Steel, Walter Cianciusi, Yoko Ono, Luc Fierens, Jim Leftwich, Ken Friedman, Jeff Hogue, Rebecca Cunningham, Don Boyd, Neil Horsky, Larry Miller, Fluxdada, Karl Heinz Jeron, Marco Geovenale, Patrick Anderson-McQuoid and Tomas Schmit, George Brecht, Bibiana Padilla Maltos, Carol Starr, Cecil Touchon, Keith Buchholz, John M. Bennett, Reid Wood, Reed Altemus, Sheila Murphy,

Cut-up/Reassembled - Collage and Assemblage in the American West - Houston Baptist University – Houston, Texas

Fluxus Performance for the Carnival of the Arts - AXIOM Gallery for new and experimental media  - Boston, Mass. : CIAO PAOLINA - a project by Vittore Baroni - Italy


2007

A Way with Words Group exhibition at the Galvestan Arts Center

Looking Back - Looking Forward Group exhibition at William Campbell Contemporary Art

2006

Douglas Udell Gallery VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada

Douglas Udell Gallery EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada

2005

Almost Believable Kunstzentrium Massurreal - Berlin, Germany - A New Media art exhibit from the portfolios of Domenic Ali, Jochen Brennecke, Tess Cortes, Alan King, Melanie Marie Kruezhof, Chip Simons, James Seehafer, Cecil Touchon Curated by James Seehafer

2004

Selections from the Permanent Collection of the the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction Meditech Greater Boston Area

Selections from the Permanent Collection of the the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction New England Bio Labs, Greater Boston Area

2002

"Small Pleasures" Exhibit at Austin College

9th Salon International du Collage Contemporain de Paris Paris, France

2001

8th Salon International du Collage Contemporain de Paris Paris, France

Works on Paper show at the Armory in New York City

2000

Works on Paper show at the Armory in New York City

Group Exhibition at Sears/Peyton, Works on Paper, New York

Selected Collections

• MOMA – New York, NY
• MOMA Library Manhattan, New York, NY
• Emily Harvey Foundation – New York, NY
• Museu Brasileiro da Escultura - San Paulo, Brazil
• Mela Foundation, New York, NY
• Studio One, New York, NY (Yoko Ono)
• Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
• Fogg Museum of Art Archive, Cambridge, Mass.
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art Research Library, Los Angeles, Ca
• The Getty Research Institute - Los Angeles, Ca
• Modern Realism, San Francisco, Ca
• Chicago Art Institute – Chicago, Il.
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Il.
• Joan Flasch Artist Book Collection, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Il.
• Saint Louis Art Museum, Library, Saint Louis, Mo
• Iowa State University - Fluxus Collection - Ames, IA
• ATCA Special Collections, Iowa State University, Iowa City, Iowa
• Avant Writing Collection - Rare Books & Manuscripts Library - at Ohio State University
• Ohio State University Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscript Libraries, Columbus, Ohio
• Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami, Fl
• Ontological Museum, Fluxus Collections, Fort Worth, Texas
• Longview Museum and Art Center – Longview, Texas
• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Mn
• The Tate Modern – London, UK
• Tate Britain (Archive), London, UK
• Museum Fluxus + - Potsdam, Germany
• Artpool Art Research Center, Budapest, Hungary
• TAM Archive, Breda, Netherlands
• Szuka Fabryke /Archive, Tielrode, Belgium
• Knud Pedersen Archive, Copenhagen, Denmark
• E.O.N. Archive, Viareggio, Italy
• Archivo Francesco Conz, Verona Italy
• Sellem Archive of Experimental amd Marginal Art, Lund, Sweden
• Virginia Common Wealth University
• 
Stendhal Gallery, George Maciunas Foundation, New York
• 
Monash University Library, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
• 
State Library of Victoria, Rare Printed Collections, Melbourne

• Stiftung Lyrik Kabinett, Muenchen, Germany

• University of Brighton, UK
Edinburgh College of Art Library, UK

• Glasgow School of Art Library, UK
• 
University College of London
Arts Council England, Manchester, UK

• The Poetry Library, London

• Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, UK

• Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK

• Winchester School of Art Library, UK

• University for the Creative Arts at Farnham, UK
• 
Manchester Metropolitan University

• Julia Vermes Sammlung, Basel, Switzerland
• The Tabernacle, at The Moma, Wales, Machynlleth, Wales
• SONS - Shoes Or No Shoes Museum, Kruishoutem, Belgium
• The Davis Lisboa Mini-Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain
• The Judith A. Hoffberg Archive at the Library of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Ca
• The Mansion at Turtle Creek – Dallas, Texas
• Joel Coen + Frances McDormand
• Dannon Yogurt
• 
Pace Managements

• Quaker State Oil Company

• HBO
• 
IBM

• FGIC, New York
• 
UPS Atlanta Offices

• AM South, Florida
• 
American Airlines at DFW Airport
• 
Delta Airlines
• 
Addison Jet Port

• United Airlines at Denver International Airport

• PageNet
• 
William Noble Jewelers, Dallas
• 
Craig Properties
• 
Reader's Digest
• 
Hallmark Cards, Kansas City

• Prudential Insurance Company – Prudential Plaza,Newark, NJ

• Haynes and Boone, Dallas
• 
Cargill Corporation, NM
• 
K.T.I. Corporation
• 
J.P.Morgan Bank, (International Division), New York

• Sanyo Corporation

• Neiman-Marcus, New Jersey

• Neiman-Marcus, Fort Worth
• 
Neiman-Marcus, Florida
• 
Swiss Banking Services
• 
Fidelity Investments, Boston
• 
First Boston
• 
Trans Texas Investments

• Southeast Bank

• Southwest Bank
• Citibank
Bank of Tokyo, New York

• Am South, Burmingham, AL.
T
• he Muse Hotel - New York City, New York

• Mito Plaza Hotel - Kyoto, Japan
• 
The Westin Hotel 292 5th Ave  New York
• 
American Express, NYC
• 
Hampton Inn - Washington D.C.
• Bellagio Hotel Las Vegas (2 black figures)
• 
The Fairmount Hotel Washington D.C.

• The Carlyle Hotel NYC
• 
Metromedia Restaurant Group
• 
R.P.M. Specialists 
Nat West

Additional

• Founder/director of the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction and hosts international exchanges of collage among collage artists, curates and mounts exhibitions for the museum.
• Cofounder of the International Post-Dogmatist Group - an avant-garde artist organization
• Founder of The Fluxnexus a contemporary Fluxus community
• Founder/director of the Fluxmuseum - fluxmuseum.org

Collaborative Projects

2008-9

Fluxkits #1-8 from Fluxus Saint Louis

Tiny Box Project – curated by Josh Ronsen - Austin, Texas

2002

Paper presented to: 
"Something for Nothing" Subjectivity and society in the new economy - 5 & 6 Sept 2002 (Pretoria, South Africa) 
is the 8th annual South African qualitative methods conference and is organized by the Critical Methods Society. 
A conference about living in a time of global change. The conference covers four inter-related streams:  Economy - Large scale issues such as poverty, globalization and the politics of 'development' and how these manifest in local communities. Subjectivity - The kinds of individual psychologies and identities that flourish in the current economic and political climate. Pedagogy - How the skills and values that sustain the global world order are taught in our  schools and universities; and possible alternatives. Knowledge - Critical knowledge-making practices of all sorts - from qualitative research methodologies to the kinds of theoretical tools that can help us understand and transform society.

5th AVTEXTFEST - a festival of experimental literature

SILENCE PLEASE - is one of fourthirtythree.org’s series of projects set up to mark the 50th anniversary, in 2002, of John Cage’s silent composition ‘four minutes, thirty-three seconds’

2001

Poetry and/against Power - The poems were exhibited in a large space (Arsenale Bunker and a long metallic net) organized by the artist Marco Nereo Rotelli. At the Venice Biennial - Venice, Italy

1 : h o t : m i n___________email : sound : project : - A collaborative project of creating one minute of sound/noise/music remotely by email with six other sound artists like an 'exquisite corpse' drawing.

2000

FLUXLIST BOX - http://www.fluxus.org/FLUXLIST/box1/ This was a project of the current Fluxus community of artists in which contributing

happY nEw earS - ONLINE at http://www.fluxus.org/FLUXLIST/happYneWearS/ Online version adapted from booklet produced by Roger Stevens. 30 contributing Fluxus authors. More than 70 poems. A FLUXLIST project.

1999

Weak Blood - artists against war and violence http://netartefact.de/weakblood/

Press

• 2007 featured on a radio program called “Some Assembly Required”, a program about collage sound works
• 2006 issue of Boston Review (http://www.bostonreview.net). Rhode Island School of Design’s special double issue of the journal Visible Language on Fluxus developed by Owen Smith and Ken Friedman
• 2005 The Dirty Dude Album (cover design)
• STARFISH POETRY, Starfish #1 (Fall '05) edited by PR Primeau |design help by Dimitri Diakopolous
• PERSISTENCIA*PRESS online FM RADIO - March 16 - 2005
• PERSISTENCIA*PRESS online three collages published in William James Austin's BLACKBOX
• 2004 Experimental Sound Works featured on XStream Radio (an internet radio station) broadcasting from Paris, specialized in electronic and experimental music
• Elle Decor Magazine Dec 2004. Issue artwork appeared in the photos of a home article.
• 2002 Perspektive Magazine (print and web)
• 2001 Metropolitan Home Magazine March-April 2001 issue page 152