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Fluxus Box



Artist Statement
My Fluxus Box was inspired by the movie Heathers. The title is H & V. In the making of the box itself, I used cardboard, tape and glue to create the structure. In the decorating of the box and the making of the objects, I looked at certain characters in the story as archetypes, and methods of talking about each specific issue that the movie mentioned. The main character Veronica, is an an abusive relationship with JD, who turns out to be a school shooting suicide bomber. The Heathers each have problems as well. One has bulimia, one tries to OD on pills, and the other is poisoned in the first half of the movie.

In decorating my box, I glued scraps of articles and stories to the outside and interior of the box about these issues. Articles about drug overdose, teen suicides, eating disorders, domestic violence, and suicide bombers. The objects that go into the box were harder to come up with and make. The colors of the movie are an incredibly strong theme throughout, and I wanted to make my objects those colors as well. The dimensions of the box are 10.5 in x 15 in x 10.5 in.
The research that I used for creating my box was not only the movie itself, but also articles I printed and manipulated to cover the box with.

Teen Suicide
Suicide Bombing
Drug Overdose
Eating Disorders
Domestic Violence


Teen Murders
http://gunfreezone.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/Mass-Murder-with-Firearms.pdf








Two objects represented Heather Chandler, both were glass bottles.
One was filled with blue liquid- like the dish cleaner she was poisoned with- and had a red piece of paper acting as the label.
The other bottle had a red cloth in it, covered with safety pins, and on top were blue bits of a flower I picked to represent Veronica, and her leading to Chandler's death.The red cloth with the safety pins was to represent Heather Chandler's beautiful yet dangerous nature.







Objects to represent JD were a cup, a plastic glove, and a brooch.
The cup was a crushed black solo cup, representing not only JD's color, but also his feelings of abandonment and uselessness. Solo cups are also a common trope of high school parties, use to underage drink.
The brooch is actually from my grandmother, that she was going to sell and let me keep. The cameo fell off of the front, and I never wear brooches or pins, so it just sits with the rest of the jewelry I do not wear. On the inside of the brooch I put in some of my hair, symbolizing Veronica, and on the front where the cameo is supposed to be, I glued a black piece of paper with the words BIG FUN written in blue ink. The hair in the brooch is something that couples did in Europe when the husband went away, one of them would give the other a handkerchief, or a piece of their hair in a locket to remember them by. In modern times, keeping a lock of someone's hair is seen as creepy and stalker-like. BIG FUN, is used in the movie as a threat to Veronica. In the movie Veronica goes to her room and sees a barbie hanging by a noose has BIG FUN written on her clothes. This object is representative of JD's manipulative and stalker tenancies.
The last object I soaked pieces of black paper in a mixture of glue and water, and then crushed them into worm-like forms. Once they dried I put them into a plastic work glove and closed the glove with a small metal wire. The paper represents the parasitic quality of JD that infects Veronica and almost the entire school. They are kept from the world by a thin layer of plastic waiting to be released.

  






There was one object representing Veronica, a blue brush.
In the movie one of the big physical differences between Veronica and the Heathers, was that she had short hair that was not permed, while all the Heathers had longer and very processed hair. Even in the musical version Heathers, no matter what the actress looks like, she has to cut her hair to shoulder level to play Veronica's character. The brush that I used is a plastic portable one, that is quite old and worn down. When the brush is opened there is a small mirror, and the bristles of the brush have been cut off. Veronica was a good person before she started hanging out with the Heathers and JD. She then essentially cut off what made her what she was.



There is one object specifically representing Veronica and JD's relationship.
It is a strip of black velvet fabric, tied into a roll with a lock of black hair, and a string, with a noose at the end of it. At the start of their relationship, it was fun and pretty and happy, like velvet. However, soon things take a turn for the worse and she eventually fakes her own suicide by hanging to try and get away from him. The hair represents the same thing as it did in the locket, the longing and obsession that JD feels for her, that turns abusive and manipulative.




Heather Duke has two objects representing her, a strip of knitted green yarn, and makeup wipes. Heather Duke throughout the course of the movie, wants to be the one in control, and wants to be the 'Heather Chandler'. She tries to be the perfect person on the outside- she even resorts to bulimia- but one the inside she is a selfish and jealous person.
Heather Duke is always trying to be perfect for other people, wearing makeup and nice clothes and making herself look good, while not caring about her health. That is what the makeup wipes symbolize.
This object was my very first attempt at knitting. It looks like one tangled mess of cheap yarn, bumpy and knotted and messy. When Duke tries to be perfect, even more of her flaws are shown through she becomes even more knotted and cruel. She has the potential to be a good person, but wants power to badly, and to quote the movie, Veronica asks her. "Why are you such a bitch?" Duke replies, "Because I can be."



Heather McNamara had one object representing her, three dried twigs held together with yellow felt tied in a bow. On the branches of the twigs hangs foils of pills, the insides painted yellow. McNamara is the most redeemable out of the three Heathers. She is portrayed as the cute naive one in many instances. The twigs and yellow bow represent that innocence, that becomes dried up as the movie progresses. Around the middle of the movie, she tries to kill herself in the girls bathroom with a bottle of prescription pills, but Veronica stops her and makes her spit them out. That attempted suicide is represented by the pills painted yellow, hanging ominously form the twigs branches.



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