do it yourself
/4
- do it yourself
- 1970-75
- 4 parts: print on paper, nail, stamp on hankie, booklet; various dimesions
The Czech conceptualism of the 1970s was conceived in a homemade manner, with artists like Jiří Valoch, J. H. Kocman, Jan Wojnar, Marian Palla and Karel Adamus creating a large portion of their works quite literally at the kitchen table. This is reflected in the materials used. They worked with what was accessible—like office supplies, various gadgets, and household materials. Valoch’s series “Do it yourself,” much like his works resembling instructional manuals or “partitures” (scores), was born before the backdrop of his interest in the Fluxus movement, with which he was connected from the 1960s onward. He participated in Mieko Shiomi’s international correspondence event Spatial Poems, and 1969 saw him correspondingly ask a large number of Fluxus artists to attend an exhibition entitled “Partitures” (Brno House of Arts, 1969, curated by Jiří Valoch). He and J. H. Kocman were probably closest with Ben Vautier, with whom they maintained an ongoing correspondence and with whose concept of total art they sympathized. J.P.