Editing Fluxus (section)

=== Feminism ===
Women associated with Fluxus such as [[Carolee Schneemann]] and [[Charlotte Moorman]], and founding members of the group such as [[Alison Knowles]] and [[Yoko Ono]], contributed works in varying media and with differing content such as Knowles' "Make a Salad" and "Make a Soup.". Each was shaped by their times and their associations with artists of the previous generation such as [[Sari Dienes]] who were pointing the way to the changes of the 1960s and 70s with strong personnas and art.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/museum-show-for-sari-dienes/5895|title=A New Book and a Museum Show for Sari Dienes|work=[[Whitehot Magazine]]|last=Bloch|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Bloch (artist)|date=July 2023|access-date=8 September 2023}}</ref> Some made experimental and performative work having to do with the body that created a powerful female presence, which existed within Fluxus from the group's beginning as illustrated by works including [[Carolee Schneemann|Carolee Schneemann's]] "Interior Scroll", Yoko Ono's "[[Cut Piece 1964|Cut Piece]]", and [[Shigeko Kubota]]'s "Vagina Painting". Women working within Fluxus were often simultaneously critiquing their position within a male dominated society while also exposing the inequalities within an art collective that claimed to be open and diverse. George Maciunas, in his rejection of Schneeman as a member of Fluxus, called her "guilty of Baroque tendencies, overt sexuality, and theatrical excess".<ref name="O'Dell">{{harvnb|O'Dell|1997}}</ref> "Interior Scroll" was a response to Schneemann's experience as a filmmaker in the 1950s and 1960s, when male filmmakers claimed that women should restrict themselves to dance.
{{Poem quote|text=
He said we are fond of you
You are charming
But don't ask us
To look at your films
We cannot
There are certain films
We cannot look at
The personal clutter
The persistence of feeling
The hand-touch sensibility
|sign=Carolee Schneemann<ref name="O'Dell" />
}}

In ''An evening with Fluxus women: a roundtable discussion'', hosted at New York University on 19 February 2009 by ''Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory'' and the Department of Performance Studies, a passage from Mieko Shiomi reads "...the best thing about Fluxus, I think, is that there was no discrimination on the basis of nationality and gender. Fluxus was open to anyone who shared similar thoughts about art and life. That's why women artists could be so active without feeling any frustration."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yoshimoto |first1=Midori |last2=Knowles |first2=Alison |last3=Schneemann |first3=Carolee |last4=Seagull |first4=Sara |last5=Moore |first5=Barbara |last6=Shiovitz |first6=Brynn Wein |last7=Yoshimoto |first7=Midori |last8=Pittman |first8=Alex |title=An evening with Fluxus women: a roundtable discussion |journal=Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory |date=November 2009 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=369–389 |doi=10.1080/07407700903399524|s2cid=194022721 }}</ref>{{rp|p=370}}

[[Shigeko Kubota|Shigeo Kubota]]'s ''Vagina Painting'' (1965), was performed by attaching a paintbrush dipped in red paint to her underwear, then applying it to a piece of paper while moving over it in a crouching position. The paint evoked menstrual blood. ''Vagina Painting'' has been interpreted as a critique of [[Jackson Pollock]]'s action paintings, and the male-dominated [[Abstract expressionism|abstract expressionist]] tradition.<ref>Terpenkas, Andrea (June 2017). "Fluxus, Feminism, and the 1960's". ''Western Tribularies''. '''4'''.</ref>