Nicole L. Woods - "Performing Chance" - Christine Mehring
Nicole L. Woods will discuss her new book Performing Chance. She will be joined in conversation by Christine Mehring. A Q&A and book signing will follow the discussion.
At the Co-op
About the Book: This is the first monographic study of American artist Alison Knowles, who stands out as the sole female artist among the founders of the Fluxus movement, yet has remained an enigmatic, underrecognized figure in the history of art. Performing Chance fills a gap in the record, bringing to light Knowles’s transformative body of work as it evolved from abstract painting in the late 1950s, to silkscreens, print media, and performance in the early 1960s, to groundbreaking works in digital poetry, acoustical art, and large-scale installations in the late 1960s-70s.
Through her access to previously unpublished archival materials and direct interviews with the artist, Nicole L. Woods provides close readings of pivotal works, disclosing the ways Knowles instituted formal tactics that moved beyond modernist painting, championed principles of indeterminacy and chance, and fostered sociopolitical consciousness. Situating Knowles’s innovations in various media within the distinct cultural contexts of Wiesbaden, London, Paris, New York City, and Los Angeles, Performing Chance brings this key artist back to her rightful place as a leader of the postwar avant-garde and provides a nuanced history of the role of women artists in Fluxus and beyond.
About the Author: Nicole L. Woods is a Los Angeles–based art historian and critic. She is distinguished visiting professor of modern and contemporary art at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
About the Moderator: Christine Mehring is the Mary L. Block Professor of Art History and the College and Associate Faculty in the Department of Visual Art at the University of Chicago.
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