BRATTLEBORO-Artist Nye Ffarrabas and exhibition curator Mark Waskow will discuss the artist's life and career in a public talk at BMAC on Thursday, May 8, at 5:30 p.m.
In the early and mid-1960s, artist Nye Ffarrabas was part of New York City's experimental and creative laboratory known as Fluxus, which encouraged the view that life and art were inseparable, that art was not an end-product but rather a creative energy and process.
Now 92 and a resident of Brattleboro, Ffarrabas is featured in the exhibition "Truth IS A Verb!" on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) through July 6.
"Truth IS A Verb!" showcases Ffarrabas's text-based works on paper - cards, letters, instructions, books, and three-dimensional objects- published and distributed by The Black Thumb Press, which Ffarrabas founded in 1965. Black Thumb's goal, she says, was to expand visual and verbal stimuli, encourage exploration, and investigate ways of combining different media in unexpected ways. The exhibition includes a variety of text-based ephemera, such as a box of cards that provide instructions for different activities or how to achieve certain states of mind.
According to the museum's website, Ffarrabas, formerly known as Bici Forbes Hendricks, and her fellow Fluxus artists "chose to pursue the creative process rather than construct a fossil record. For example, they developed musical scores to be performed or kits instructing people how to take specific steps in order to enact certain events."
In that capacity, the website continues, Ffarrabas "corresponded and collaborated with artists who became household names, such as Yoko Ono, Claes Oldenburg, John Cage, George Brecht, John Lennon, Dick Higgins, and George Maciunas."
"Ffarrabas viewed her creative process as anti-capitalist," Waskow said. "She drew strength from the human spirit and constantly visualized a world made better through art's contributions."
An independent curator, collector, and public speaker, and longtime supporter and president of Burlington's Northern New England Museum of Contemporary Art, Waskow describes Ffarrabas as "perhaps one of the most historically significant 'under-known artists' of our time. She occupies a significant place in the history of postmodern art and the global cultural zeitgeist, yet her work is still being discovered by many."
Waskow noted that in The Friday Book of White Noise, a conceptual sketchbook Ffarrabas created beginning in 1962, she defined art as "dangerous, because it threatens the foundations of our assurances ... irreverent, because it challenges our myths ... devious, because it works in us by surprise ... sacred, because it can compel us to be honest ... subversive, because its insights can cause changes in our lives."
Admission to the public talk is free. Advance registration is optional, and walk-ins are welcome. To register, visit brattleboromuseum.org or call 802-257-0124, ext. 101.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.