BEN VAUTIER

Above, Harper "Meeting herself"

I wrote a loving review of an exhibition by Ben Vautier years ago at the much-missed partobject gallery in Carrboro, North Carolina. Much to my delight, the Musee d'Art Contemporain here in Lyon has just opened a HUGE retrospective of Ben Vautier. (This is the first show I have LOVED at this museum.) He is a: fluxus trickster; Ducampian prankster; crazy Joseph Cornellian maker; pre-Francis Alys; text maniac; Robert Frank aestehetic; fun spirited and relational guy. Here are some photographs and the kid's art at home later that night that was inspired by Vautier.

The chair of truth:

Throwing God into the river:

Headless dolls. Harper thinks Vautier chopped all the heads off and she is probably right:

Guthrie using Vautier's shoe shine machine until the nasty guard told us to stop
because "it is not a toy."

Everything is FLUXUS.

Harper reflected in the EGO CAGE:

Harper's Vautier Puppet Show:

And her Vautier-inspired collage:

Tuesday night's dessert: