{"id":2509,"date":"2016-11-27T21:05:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T19:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/?p=2509"},"modified":"2016-12-05T20:53:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T18:53:54","slug":"on-benjamin-patterson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/?p=2509","title":{"rendered":"On Benjamin Patterson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Patterson, who saw over fifty years of experimental art production as a Fluxus co-founder and artist, passed away this summer. Born in Pittsburgh May 29, 1934, Patterson was an African-American bassist with limited professional opportunities in segregation-era United States. Instead, Patterson circumvented existing racial barriers by relocating to Canada and performing with symphony orchestras, at which point he took closer interest in electronic music.[1]<\/a>\u00a0A trip to Germany redirected the course of his career to experimental art production after a negative encounter with acclaimed Karlheinz Stockhausen. The fallout was brief. Shortly thereafter, he attended and even performed in Cologne alongside major persons such as American experimental musician John Cage. Patterson later held a central role to the formation and continuation of Fluxus, a group associated with anti-art, neo-dada and proto-conceptualist ideas in performance.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

A principal Fluxus artist, Patterson supplied details about the group\u2019s history and choices of media in numerous interviews over the years. For example, his conversation in the US Army magazine\u00a0Stars and Stripes<\/em>\u00a0introduced Fluxus to general audiences in Wiesbaden. Emmett Williams, a fellow Fluxus artist and the magazine\u2019s editor, also partook in the \u201ctongue-in-cheek\u201d conversation on their antics.[3]<\/a>\u00a0More recently, Patterson contributed significantly as the creative director of Fluxus\u2019 fiftieth celebration in Wiesbaden, its adoptive birthplace.[4]<\/a>\u00a0Obituaries following Patterson\u2019s passing remark upon his prominent role, his many firsts, and also poetically treat his overlooked contributions to histories of experimental art.[5]<\/a>\u00a0In this article, I contribute to reflections on Patterson\u2019s significance by concentrating on one of many interviews from his lifetime.<\/p>\n

Indeed, I argue that his self-authored interview \u201cIch bin froh, da\u00df Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben\u201d from 1991 became a linchpin from which Patterson developed a public platform and tangible presence within Fluxus history.[6]<\/a>\u00a0I focus on the life of the essay and connect it to Patterson\u2019s engagement with writing as central to his art practice. Exploring moments behind this publication provides an alternative way to respond to discussions related to Benjamin Patterson\u2019s art career \u2014 particularly, his absence within Fluxus narratives.<\/p>\n

I begin with the second appearance of \u201cIch bin froh, da\u00df Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben\u201d as \u201cSelf Interview.\u201d This text reappeared for Patterson\u2019s first solo show in 1992 at Fondazione Mudima in Milan, which published the exhibition-specific periodical\u00a0Bull Shit.<\/em>\u00a0Patterson\u2019s special issue of\u00a0Bull Shit<\/em>, titled\u00a0Bull Shit No. 2<\/em>, featured two texts by him, several images, and artwork as supplemental material for his show\u00a0Getting Ready for 2000 A.D.<\/em>\u00a0This issue is the only time that any of Patterson\u2019s other writing accompanied the interview, meaning that he was the sole author of the issue. The multiple appearances of this interview extended its life, accessibility, and thus contexts behind Patterson\u2019s relationship to art making. In this essay, I link all five lives of his interview to consider writing as central within his art practice.<\/p>\n

Of note, \u201cIch bin froh, da\u00df Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben\u201d first debuted as a standalone article in\u00a0Kunstforum International<\/em>\u00a0in 1991, propelling his profile to a German-speaking public. Patterson republished it in English and under the heading \u201cSelf Interview\u201d (1992) in\u00a0Bull Shit<\/em>. Its third and fourth appearances in 2011 and 2012, in\u00a0From Black to Schwarz: Cultural Crossovers Between African America and Germany<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX\/us<\/em>\u00a0respectively, existed alongside a wave of scholarly interest in highlighting his role as a leading Black experimental artist. Its fifth, and now final, form appeared in 2013 as \u201cFortsetzung,\u201d in which Patterson updated audiences about his rise in popularity, a rise leading him to assert he, \u201cno longer enjoy[ed] anonymity.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fig.<\/a>

Fig. 1: Benjamin Patterson, Bull Shit No. 2, cover page, featuring \u201cBackground\u201d by Benjamin Patterson, February\/March, 1992.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1992, Patterson reused the entire unaltered text from his 1991 self-authored interview. It functioned as the main essay for his issue of\u00a0Bull Shit<\/em>, and for his multileveled solo exhibition at Fondazione Mudima. The interview progressed through a series of planted questions, detailing Patterson\u2019s career overview as well as positing judgments about Fluxus as a collective. His choice to republish the interview indicates a desire to familiarize different audiences with his knowledge of Fluxus history. It similarly provides an additional layer for approaching how Patterson conceptualizes ideas. His special issue\u00a0Bull Shit. No 2<\/em>\u00a0includes a separate text titled \u201cBackground,\u201d which precedes \u201cSelf Interview\u201d and articulates themes integral to his exhibition\u00a0Getting Ready for 2000 A.D.<\/em>\u00a0In an attempt to lay bare his exhibition framework, Patterson\u2019s texts performed like scaffolding, providing entryways for audiences to understand practices and theories for an exhibition prompted by the end of a decade and a century.<\/p>\n

The circumstances behind the interview\u2019s second life, however, in\u00a0Bull Shit<\/em>\u00a0remained unannounced in the issue. Neither Gino di Maggio, an enthusiastic Fluxus collector and founder of Fondazione Mudima, nor Patterson, elaborated explicitly on such intricate points as editors. They listed it simply as \u201cSelf Interview,\u201d and the eponymous in-line reference weakly clues new audiences to its original title. The text\u2019s introduction also offers little support for a deeper understanding of its preexistence. I am choosing to magnify its presence, reading it visually and textually as part of Patterson\u2019s practice in writing and viewer engagement. Writing and imaging were critical modes of communication that undergirded much of his early works on paper, his puzzle poems and his operas. It is therefore productive to treat this interview as a comparable moment within his creative process.<\/p>\n

\"Fig.<\/a>

Fig. 2: Benjamin Patterson, \u201cSeminar II\u201d, Black and White File: A Primary Collection of Scores and Instructions for His Music, Events, Operas, Performance and Other Projects 1958-1998. Black binder, white facsimiles. 32 x 29 x 5 cm.<\/p><\/div>\n

Two quintessential examples from his oeuvre are the anthology\u00a0Black and White File: A Primary Collection of Scores and Instructions for His Music, Events, Operas, Performances and Other Projects 1958-1998<\/em>\u00a0(1999)\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Methods and Processes<\/em>\u00a0(1962). Prose is a distinctive characteristic in his\u00a0Black and White File<\/em>. Readers encounter heavy amounts of text as guidelines to performances or as texts for events. Comparatively, his first artist book\u00a0Methods and Processes<\/em>\u00a0marked a \u201csort of the return to visual work, as it were,\u201d evident from his pairing of texts and images for interpretative exercises.[8]<\/a>\u00a0Patterson\u2019s comprehensive assembly of materials reveals that he approached publishing as a way to ensure accessibility.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Whereas Patterson did foreground some explanatory details at the introduction of \u201cIch bin froh\u201d (and its subsequent titles), I am particularly interested in what he visualized or obscured. Accessibility may offer resources from which to build upon, but it cannot always clarify context. At the outset, Patterson wrote \u201cDieter Daniels suggested that he would like to do a piece on Benjamin Patterson in a special Fluxus issue of Kunst Forum,\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0Patterson\u2019s dislike for interviews led to Daniels suggesting that he \u201cdo the whole interview of myself by myself.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0Outlined in this playful, albeit serious, first and third-person work, are ideas and accounts; left unstated are the editorial and visual decisions impacting the issue.<\/p>\n

Patterson communicated working theories about his practice in his special issue of\u00a0Bull Shit<\/em>, and established the tenor of the exhibition through visual forms. His \u201cBackground\u201d text, a separate and preceding text as I mentioned above, supports my first point. In gray, he wrote: \u201cActually, this exhibition was originally to be titled \u2018Getting Ready for 1992.\u2019 This title occurred to me somewhere, mid-year 1990. However, as it is now clear, neither I, nor almost anybody else in the world, have been able to get ready for the events of 1990 and 1991.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0\u201cBackground\u201d laid a foundation for a show framed by the ensuing years, beginning with the 1990s and concluding at the millennial turn. If the single, disembodied eye on the issue\u2019s cover was not distressing enough, Patterson\u2019s words suggested the need to brace oneself.<\/p>\n

Rather than frighten readers, Patterson sternly suggested that the present and future moments were ripe for productive conversation about social conditions. Shifting back further than 1992, he cited 1989 as the real point of departure for\u00a0Getting Ready for 2000 A.D.<\/em>\u00a0at Fondazione Mudima. \u201cIt was at that point that I began to \u2019smell\u2019 that \u2019odor\u2019, [sic] which precedes a changing wind,\u201d he noted about living in New York City at a time of escalating social problems.[13]<\/a>\u00a0Patterson found himself surrounded by class and racial divides that worsened under President Ronald Reagan\u2019s \u201cReaganomics.\u201d Reagan\u2019s neoliberal economic policies of lower taxation and de-regulation were critiqued widely as placing business before people. Just as well, 1989 signified more than US trends. It evoked a sense of relief and hope attached to the demolition of the Berlin Wall, which stood as a remnant of divisiveness from World War II. Its \u201cfall\u201d subsequently foreshadowed Germany\u2019s reunification, which crystallized a sense of progressive change in the western global imaginary.<\/p>\n

\"Fig.<\/a>

Fig. 3: Benjamin Patterson, \u201cBackground\u201d, in: Bull Shit No. 2.<\/p><\/div>\n

The impression of progress ran parallel in Patterson\u2019s special issue as readers advanced the folios. The spread contained forms with literal, and in my opinion, metaphoric meaning. Once individuals turned from the cover page to the next, they encountered a photo of Patterson trumpeting to an undetectable horizon. As he plays a trumpet covered by a plastic glove, he stands beneath three sections of forthcoming events at Fondazione Mudima that resemble white columns: \u201cConcerts,\u201d \u201cExhibitions,\u201d and \u201cConferences\/One Day Shows.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Each column forms a white silhouette of a classical arch, repeating Mudima\u2019s iconic black logo at the bottom, which also situates Patterson\u2019s clipped image within a symbolic context of tradition, invention, and grandeur.<\/p>\n

To the right-hand side, an installation photo of a staircase with vinyl letters covers the entire page. The image indicates that visitors would travel up a staircase of declarations to view other exhibition works. This one in particular had a bulky bullnose that narrowed after three steps. The ordinary movement up a staircase becomes an ascendance across elongated assertions and declarative vinyl on every riser. It recalls text from \u201cBackground,\u201d such as Patterson\u2019s comment that beginning of new years leads to a type of introversion for \u201cconsidering the \u2018mystical\u2019 properties of temporal benchmarks.\u201d[14]<\/a>\u00a0Like New Year\u2019s resolutions, one moves from premise to affirmation.<\/p>\n

The first step states, \u201cTHE WORLD IS IN A GRAVE AND PRO-BLEMATIC CONDITION.\u201d The next step, \u201cTHE WORLD NEEDS MY HELP,\u201d signals a move towards solutions. Patterson wrote out in vinyl for each subsequent step: \u201cTHEREFORE I PROMISE TO\/ BE MORE\/ THINK MORE\/ DO MORE\/ LEARN MORE\/ BE MORE\/ THINK MORE\/ DO MORE\/ LEARN MORE\/ BE MORE\/ THINK MORE.\u201d[15]<\/a><\/p>\n

Viewed together, the verso and recto pages imply upward movement and resonate with Patterson\u2019s conclusion at the end of \u201cBackground.\u201d Among other topics in the text, readers would also learn that Patterson had initiated a ten-year artist documentation project to capture the onslaught of worldwide events. The initiation of the Gulf War by the US (1990); German Reunification (1990); and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in apartheid South Africa (1990) were historical shifts that took Patterson\u2019s attention. Related to the development of the European Union, his featured works in the show were contributions for \u201cencouraging the psychological\/\u2018spiritual\u2019\/philosophical preparedness which will be required by the challenge of \u2018uniting\u2019 Europe.\u201d[16]<\/a><\/p>\n

A supplement to the exhibition, his special issue \u201cBull Shit No. 2\u201d similarly performed ideas of preparedness and reflection. Each text within, \u201cBackground\u201d and \u201cSelf Interview,\u201d elaborates on Patterson\u2019s theories of art and Fluxus history. He flatly laid out parameters of both, sharing that he completed a \u201cwriting project\u201d prompted by Fluxus\u2019 upcoming thirtieth anniversary in 1992.[17]<\/a>His first theory was that art existed out of the humanity\u2019s need to be creative, or as he stated \u201cevolve or die.\u201d[18]<\/a>\u00a0Second, art created a basis from which culture extended by \u201cdevelopment and propagation.\u201d Taking the position that positive social change moved slower than societal development, Patterson envisioned this exhibition as his \u201creturn to the basics,\u201d or using art for necessary progress.[19]<\/a>\u00a0This \u201creturn,\u201d I believe, also references actual changes in his own life.<\/p>\n

Getting Ready for 2000 A.D.<\/em>\u00a0occurred two years of sustained momentum with his career. After relocating to Germany, Patterson already had two recent solo shows, completely severing his so-called \u201cretirement from the unstable life of an experimental artist in New York\u201d since the mid-1960s.[20]<\/a>\u00a0Patterson described the years between 1965 and 1988 as the period where he pursued a normal life, shorthand for parenthood and a regimented lifestyle. The life of a Fluxus artist offered little financial ability, and so he took up library, director and freelance positions over the years.[21]<\/a>\u00a0All the while, he showcased or performed a range of works at varying institutions.[22]<\/a>\u00a0His solo show \u201cOrdinary Life\u201d (1988) at Emily Harvey Gallery signaled his \u201creturn\u201d to working as an artist, jumpstarting a tremendously prolific period to come. As the gears turned, his interview created unobstructed space for Patterson to enunciate his experiences and articulate a history of Fluxus.<\/p>\n

\"Fig.<\/a>

Fig. 4: Wolfgang Tr\u00e4ger, Benjamin Patterson, 1989.<\/p><\/div>\n

The interview became an opportunity to fashion a public identity and develop an archival footprint in public. For example,\u00a0Kunstforum International<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>\u201cIch bin froh, da\u00df Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben\u201d includes a stunning monochrome portrait taken by Wolfgang Tr\u00e4ger, an acclaimed documentary photographer. Patterson smiles pleasantly at the camera while donning a wool beret, and a plaid shirt and sweater combo beneath a coat \u2014 sartorial cues of an urbane artist. After Tr\u00e4ger\u2019s close-up follows reproductions of Patterson\u2019s artwork or material supporting exhibitions, from an exhibition card to performance documentation. The last images are of assemblages and installations, and the visibility of this material not only serves as evidence of works but also an unrestricted art practice.[23]<\/a><\/p>\n

Patterson\u2019s flexible approach to material and objects is noticeable in the interview\u2019s format change in\u00a0Bull Shit,<\/em>\u00a0and suggests he considered the context of its second republication.\u00a0<\/em>Not only did he extend its afterlife, but he also added another layer in presentation. With an entirely different set of images to accentuate his narrative, the interview appeared in English and served as connective tissue between himself and English-speaking audiences. Patterson\u2019s customized issue \u201cBull Shit No. 2\u201d doubly reflected the artist-led direction of the periodical\u00a0Bull Shit\u00a0<\/em>at the foundation.[24]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fig.<\/a>

Fig. 5: Benjamin Patterson, \u201cSelf Interview\u201d, in: Bull Shit No. 2.<\/p><\/div>\n

Bull Shit<\/em>\u00a0positioned the voice of the artist front and center. In this way, it recalls western conceptualist strategies of curating during the late 1960s. Lucy Lippard\u2019s and Seth Siegelaub\u2019s portable catalogues, created from artist-submitted material, are just two major examples. Fluxus artist Dick Higgins\u2019\u00a0Something Else Press<\/em>\u00a0was also integral to circulating artist writing and work. In the context of the move to reach audiences beyond the \u201cwhite cube,\u201d Patterson\u2019s special issue was a setting to expand networks and information sharing.<\/p>\n

Readers of any interview version would learn about Patterson\u2019s origin story; a narrative beginning with his ambitious attempts to integrate US symphony orchestras, and his subsequent involvement as a Fluxus artist. Patterson\u2019s planted questions were followed by descriptions of a lifetime of achievements that bordered on the epic and personal history, essentially creating a roadmap of his experiences. Detailed encounters manifest through memory, such as Patterson\u2019s responses to living in New York or his subtle references to racial experiences that spur questions about Fluxus\u2019 internal harmony: \u201cto varying degrees they all became friends of a sort. But now I recognize that we simply did not share the deep-rooted (albeit hidden) alienation that I lived with as the only black in this crowd.\u201d[25]<\/a><\/p>\n

His use of the term \u201chidden\u201d implies a scarcity of moments in which he comfortably spoke with his peers about race. Race was one of many constructed categories informing Patterson\u2019s positionality. He was Black, middle class, college-educated, travelled and so forth. Personally, Patterson acknowledged race as relevant, which he also linked to his use of humor.[26]<\/a>\u00a0The slippery balance between indirect referencing and verbalization, revealing and concealing, presence and absence, also plays out in the rest of \u201cBull Shit No. 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the clear portrait by Tr\u00e4ger in\u00a0Kunstforum International,\u00a0<\/em>Italian photographer\u00a0<\/em>Fabrizio Garghetti\u2019s photograph of Patterson in\u00a0Bull Shit<\/em>\u00a0seems hollow and illegible. In this moment, Patterson re-performed\u00a0Variations for Double Bass<\/em>\u00a0during 1990 in Verona. The photograph echoes Patterson\u2019s active presence in art-making by shifting the focus away from his artistic identity to his bodily movement. Printed evenly between each page, the image also inflects the context of the surrounding text. The three semi-transparent Pattersons, standing, playing and reaching out, link with his listing of artistic influences in the interview. The placement of such an image supplies more contexts for it and its neighboring text.<\/p>\n

Similar moments occur throughout the following pages, such as a photo of Patterson leading blindfolded audiences along the streets matching his critique that Fluxus artists never reached out to him about civil rights marches. If art is generative and serves the needs of social development, Patterson suggested that Fluxus failed in this regard. He stated, \u201cAll [Fluxus] really did with its reputation for radical aesthetics was to provide a safe refuge and masks for a bunch of well meaning artists.\u201d[27]<\/a>\u00a0As a platform in which he could concretize his presence and voice in Fluxus to a wider public, \u201cSelf Interview\u201d pre-emptively addressed the biographical and the personal.[28]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSelf Interview\u201d is a negotiation of Patterson\u2019s history within Fluxus\u2019 history. It thereby familiarizes readers with a certain level of visibility prior to, and after 1988. Thus, photos of his re-performances, work and installations, could engender conceptual and practical questions. Who did Patterson envision as his audience? Who was his public?[29]<\/a>\u00a0What was the reception of his work in the past, at that moment, and today? To whom was he visible or invisible and how does that affect contemporary engagement with his work? How fully does the historical record account for his international art practice? More scholars are considering similar sets of questions as Patterson\u2019s profile rises.<\/p>\n

Patterson\u2019s interview reappeared nearly a decade later once intellectuals committed to emphasizing his artistic importance. Submitted by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) curator Valerie Cassel Oliver, the 2011 anthology\u00a0From Black to Schwarz: Cultural Crossovers Between African America and Germany<\/em>\u00a0featured the interview with a preface to clarify her inspiration. To Oliver, Patterson was possibly \u201cthe \u2018godfather of black performance traditions\u2019.\u201d[30]<\/a>\u00a0Oliver utilized the interview as a way to amplify Patterson\u2019s voice, this time in book format and with two photos of his performances.[31]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Glad You Asked That Question\u201d prepared new audiences for Oliver\u2019s<\/p>\n

exhibition,\u00a0Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX\/us<\/em>, that opened November 6, 2010, at the CAMH. His first US retrospective, the exhibition and catalogue established a US scholarly context around his history as a Fluxus artist. Accompanying the interview were topical essays addressing aspects within his work \u2013 from lenses of conceptualist theory, music and chance, to Zen. The fourth iteration of Patterson\u2019s interview became firmly grounded within a US art historical context.<\/p>\n

\"Fig.<\/a>

Fig. 6: Benjamin Patterson, \u201cBull Shit No. 2\u201d, in: Bull Shit No. 2.<\/p><\/div>\n

His last version, however, diverges significantly in terms of subject and presentation. A follow-up to his 1991 interview, \u201cFortsetzung\u201d is Patterson\u2019s more recent reflection on his heightened profile. In 2013, \u201cFortsetzung\u201d appeared in the Nassauischer Kunstverein\u2019s exhibition catalogue\u00a0Benjamin Patterson: Living Fluxus.\u00a0<\/em>Operating with a similar logic as the CAMH\u2019s catalogue, readers encountered Patterson\u2019s externalized thoughts. He asked himself, \u201cNow you propose to continue with more questions and answers. Why?\u201d His answer? \u201cBecause, again, in this 50thanniversary year of Fluxus there have been many, many interviews\u2026\u00a0and again, most often, asking more or less the same questions<\/em>.\u201d[32]<\/a>\u00a0Patterson implied a lack of new lines of inquiry on part of intellectual curiosity in the movement and himself. Much shorter than his first interview, \u201cFortsetzung\u201d concludes by asserting that Fluxus\u2019 challenges to the parameters of art have \u201ckept Fluxus alive and continues to inspire younger generations.\u201d[33]<\/a><\/p>\n

His final conclusion seems abrupt, even abridged. Yet, in a practical way, Patterson\u2019s appeal to Fluxus\u2019s reception forestalls need to endlessly address basic questions. Just as Patterson concluded \u201cBull Shit No. 2\u201d with his piece\u00a0How the Average Person Thinks About Art<\/em>\u00a0(1983) \u2013 using art as a central form of engaging with history \u2013 Patterson\u2019s written conclusion of \u201cFortsetzung\u201d gestures for the need to move past biography to his work.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0Patterson was principal bassist with the Halifax Symphony Orchestra and Ottawa Philharmonic Orchestra. He also worked as a conductor for the Philharmonic Orchestra.
\n[2]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, I\u2019m Glad You Asked Me That Question, in: Valerie Cassel-Oliver\/Contemporary Arts Museum (ed.), Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX\/us, Houston (TX) 2012, p. 108\u2013116.
\n[3]<\/a>\u00a0Emmett Williams, WAY,WAY, WAY OUT, in: The Stars and Stripes, August 30, 1962, p. 11. The interview was published prior to Fluxus\u2019 festivals between September 1st\u00a0to the 23rd.
\n[4]<\/a>\u00a0Histories of Fluxus accept 1962 as the year for the \u201cofficial\u201d birth of Fluxus, meaning that work and performances were then associated under the \u201cFluxus\u201d term that George Maciunas first conceptualized as the title for a magazine in 1961, and then used publicly in writing June 1962 at the festival\u00a0Apr\u00e9s Cage: Kleinen Sommerfest\u00a0<\/em>Wuppertal.
\n[5]<\/a>\u00a0Andrew Russeth, Ben Patterson, Cornerstone of Fluxus and Experimental Art, Dies at 82, in: Art News, June 27, 2016, unpaginated; Hannah B. Higgins, On Not Forgetting Fluxus Artist Benjamin Patterson, in: Hyperallergic, July 6, 2016, unpaginated; Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Peeping in the Vacuum Left in that Space of \u2018Darker than Blueness\u2019 – On, Of, For, With Ben Patterson, in: Contemporary And, July 11, 2016, unpaginated.
\n[6]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, Ich bin froh, da\u00df Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben, in: Dieter Daniels (ed.), Kunstforum International, Fluxus: Ein Nachruf zu Lebzeiten, Nr. 115, September\/Oktober 1991, p. 166\u2013177; Benjamin Patterson, Self Interview, in: Gino di Maggio and Benjamin Patterson (ed.), Bull Shit, No. 2., special issue, Milan February\/March 1992, unpaginated; Benjamin Patterson, I\u2019m Glad You Asked Me That Question, in: Maria I. Diedrich\/J\u00fcrgen Heinrichs (ed.), From Black to Schwarz: Cultural Crossovers Between African America and Germany, East Lansing (Michigan) 2011, p. 335\u2013349; Valerie Cassel-Oliver\/Contemporary Arts Museum (ed.), 2012, p. 108\u2013116; Benjamin Patterson, Fortsetzung: Ich bin froh, dass Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben, in: Elke Gruhn\/Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (ed.), Benjamin Patterson: Living Fluxus, Wiesbaden 2013, p. 32\u201335.
\n[7]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, Ich bin froh, da\u00df Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben: Fortsetzung*, Elke Gruhn\/Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden (ed.) 2013, p. 32\u201333.
\n[8]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, in: Oral history interview with Benjamin Patterson, 2009 May 22, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.<\/em>
\n[9]<\/a>\u00a0Patterson self-published\u00a0Methods and Processes<\/em>\u00a0in 1962 while in Paris, and published\u00a0Black and White File: A Primary Collection of Scores and Instructions for His Music, Events, Operas, Performances and Other Projects 1958-1998<\/em>while in residence in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim with collector Michael Berger.
\n[10]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, Background, in: Gino di Maggio\/Benjamin Patterson (ed.), Bull Shit No. 2, special issue, Bull Shit, Milan February\/March 1992, folio 1.
\n[11]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., folio 4.
\n[12]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., folio 1.
\n[13]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., folio 1.
\n[14]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., Cover page.
\n[15]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., folio 3.
\n[16]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., folio 2.
\n[17]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., folio 2.
\n[18]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., folio 2.
\n[19]<\/a>\u00a0I am exploring his idea of radicalism and radical art in my dissertation, WHO TAUGHT YOU TO THINK (LIKE THAT): Benjamin Patterson\u2019s Conceptual Aesthetic, University of Texas at Austin, in process.
\n[20]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, Ich bin froh, da\u00df Sie mir diese Frage gestellt haben, in: Dieter Daniels (ed.), Kunstforum International,\u00a0<\/em>Nr.\u00a0<\/em>115, September\/October 1991, p. 166\u2013177.\u00a0Benjamin Patterson had two exhibitions at the Emily Harvey Gallery in New York,\u00a0Ordinary Life<\/em>\u00a0(1988) and\u00a0What Makes People Laugh?\u00a0<\/em>(1989). Patterson mentions his retirement within his interview.
\n[21]<\/a>\u00a01967 is the year in which Patterson received a Masters in Library Science from Columbia University.
\n[22]<\/a>\u00a0For a chronology, please see Meredith Goldsmith, Chronology, in: Valerie Cassel-Oliver\/Contemporary Arts Museum (ed.) 2013, p. 240\u2013253. Goldsmith\u2019s chronology of Patterson is a solid primer into his professional career.
\n[23]<\/a>\u00a0This interview includes a photograph of\u00a0Educating white Folk\u00a0<\/em>(1988), which exemplifies humor as an important strategy with its own set of politics. In fact, he stated in his interview that \u201cI prefer to use humor as it often provides the path of least suspicion\/resistance for the implanting of subversive ideas.\u201d
\n[24]<\/a>\u00a0Notably, Allan Kaprow had a solo show titled \u201c7 Environments\u201d at Mudima. His special issue included self-authored writing. Artist Takako Saito, and even Ben Vautier\u2019s tongue-in-cheek “issue 0,\u201c are examples.
\n[25]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, Self Interview, unpaginated. \u201cThey\u201d refers to La Monte Young, Jackson Mac Low, and pop or dance artists and so forth.
\n[26]<\/a>\u00a0In his interview, Patterson stated \u201cPlease know that we blacks used satirical humor as a form of protest.\u201d
\n[27]<\/a>\u00a0Benjamin Patterson, Self Interview, unpaginated.
\n[28]<\/a>\u00a0Valerie Cassel Oliver, On Ben Patterson, 333.
\n[29]<\/a>\u00a0With regard to New York City, Patterson noted that audiences were comprised of about twenty frequenters of Fluxus activities.
\n[30]<\/a>\u00a0Valerie Cassel Oliver, On Ben Patterson, 333.
\n[31]<\/a>\u00a0The accompanying photos were\u00a0Variations for Double Bass<\/em>\u00a0and \u201cFirst Symphony Performance\u201d\u00a0<\/em>accordingly.
\n[32]<\/a>\u00a0Fortsetzung, 32 (German) & 34 (English). The German version has a photo of Patterson giving a public interview in 2012. Italics are my own.
\n[33]<\/a>\u00a0Ibid., 33 (German) & 35 (English).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Patterson, who saw over fifty years of experimental art production as a Fluxus co-founder and artist, passed away this summer. Born in Pittsburgh May 29, 1934, Patterson was an African-American bassist with limited professional opportunities in segregation-era United States. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,14],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-2509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ausgabe-11","category-essays","tag-fluxus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2509"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2594,"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509\/revisions\/2594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allover-magazin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}