Takako Saito - Fluxus

Fluxus

George Maciunas was fascinated by Japanese craftsmanship, and asked Saito if she could make a few boxes for him in the same style as a number of Japanese boxes he already owned; He was so impressed with her craftmanship that he asked her to contribute a series of disrupted chess sets to sell in his new Flux shop on Canal Street, SoHo, New York. Maciunas was so delighted by Spice Chess in particular that he 'even took credit for it on occasion.'. Saito remained a close friend and fluxus collaborator until Maciunas' death.

"After a while, Maciunas proposed having dinner together every evening. In his opinion, buying food for many was more economical than buying for one... He called it Flux Dinner Commune. So George, Paik, Takako, Shigeko and I started this part-time collective life. For the first few days, the men went shopping and the girls cooked. However we found it inconvenient, because George came back rather late from his office and then often didn't buy what we wanted to cook.... It didn't last long, because we got jobs at night. George was discouraged, but bravely said, "Well, work comes first, dinner second." Mieko Shiomi

Saito remained part of the Fluxus movement throughout the 1960s and 70s, producing performance, still, multi-media, installation and sculptural work in collaboration with other artists such as George Maciunas and Yoko Ono. Saito has contributed pieces to many Fluxus collaborations, including Fluxus 1 (1964) and the Flux Cabinet (1975–77). She is perhaps most well known for her "Silent Music" piece. Her output was diverse and she is also remembered for the various disrupted chess sets including Smell Chess and Spice Chess, that she manufactured to sell in the Fluxshop, SoHo, New York, and that were often included in the Flux Boxes from 1964 onwards, which was part of a Fluxus series of game variations of Chess.