Photos: K. van Gelder
MIEKO SHIOMI, Events & Games, 2005
5 x 14 x 16.8 cm
black and white photograph – crumpled as issued, 22 cards with instructions + loose card with colphon
(incl. Chieko Shiomi: Water Music card)
screen print on plastic box
edition 80 + 5 AP
signed, numbered, here number 64/80
mint
published by 360 grades, Tokyo, Japan
inv.MShi 000-pr
This white plastic box is a re-edition of ‘Events & Games’ from the edition of 1964, signed and numbered by the artist. Mieko Shiomi was a Japanese composer, visual artist and poet.
‘Content
● 23 Instruction cards of various sizes, 1 black & white photo, explanation card in the white plastic box: 14 bilingual cards and the cards of the smallest & medium sizes of “SHADOW PIECE Ⅱ” were printed by George Maciunas for the Fluxus Edition in the early 60’s. The other 7 cards in English were printed by the author for ReFlux in the 1980’s.
● The profile (black & white photo) and the box were reproduced for this edition by Gallery 360°.
After Kuniharu Akiyama passed away, who was an original member of Fluxus and was a conductor for the Fluxus concert at Carnegie Hall, a bunch of instruction cards of Mieko Shiomi were found in his belongings. They are the instructions for the events for Fluxus. Anybody can revive the events just by following the instructions.’
From website of Gallery 360°
Mieko Shiomi began studying musicology at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1957. Interested in avant-garde music, she founded the group Ongaku with her classmates in 1960, which explored new forms and improvised performances. She then played her first compositions in public. In 1961 she participated in a concert with Toshi Ichiyanagi, the first husband of Yoko Ono, who mentioned the group to George Maciunas. He in turn included them in his tentative program for the Festival of Very Early Music, a programme that he wrote in 1962 but which was never realised; the group split up shortly after. Mieko Shiomi deepened her exploration of spatial-temporal music in relation to everyday objects. Between 1962 and 1963 she began to write exclusively textual pieces that she called action poems. In 1963 she created Endless Box, a multiple composed of 34 boxes in foldable paper of differ sizes, which she sent – on the advice of Nam June Paik (1932-2006) – to Maciunas, thus making her entrance into the Fluxus movement.
Aware-Archives of Women Artists, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Kuniharu Akiyama (1929-1996), a Japanese avant-garde composer, music critic, producer and poet was a founding member of the Jikken Kobo group of avant-garde artists in the 1950s. As a music critic he was best known for his studies of Erik Satie and Japanese film music. He was married to the pianist Aki Takahashi.
Verso: text on cards are in Japanese with black background.
Gallery 360 grades, Tokyo, Japan€ April 2026 271,83