Benjamin Patterson is known as a key figure in the international experimental artists’ network Fluxus, which was most active in the late 1950s and early ’60s. His highly influential practice—combining music, visual arts, and performance—is aligned with the Fluxus ethos, which challenged traditional art-making modes. Its members pursued a variety of experimental practices, foregrounding the use of everyday materials and gestures, live action, and chance, as evidenced in Pond (1962), Patterson’s instruction-based participatory performance included in Radical Presence.
This conversation with Patterson includes such topics as Fluxus and how his work has been received and circulated within a larger narrative in Europe and the United States.