Environments are rooms designed by Allan Kaprow in which the public could and should be active; unlike installation art, Environments alter and change with the activities of participants. Several of Kaprow’s friends and colleagues have reinvented Environments: John Baldessari and Skylar Haskard have reinvented Apple Shrine (1960); Allen Ruppersberg has reinvented Words (1962); and Barbara T. Smith has reinvented Push and Pull: A Furniture Comedy for Hans Hofmann (1963). Also featured in the exhibition is Trade Talk (2008), an Environment created by Suzanne Lacy in collaboration with Michael Rotondi and Peter Kirby. In this unique space, visitors are invited to listen to accounts of participants’ experiences of Kaprow’s work.

Installation views of Allan Kaprow–Art as Life at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 2008. Photos by Brian Forrest:

Activities are intimately scaled pieces for one or several players. These works examine everyday behaviors and habits in a way nearly indistinguishable from ordinary life. The artist explained In 1958,

I designated as a ‘Happening’ what was for me then a new vocation. It was a neutral word, with no associations of either art or other professionalization. Since that time, “Happening” has acquired a history, the general impression of Happenings is so far form my actual record and interests that after 1968 I used Michael Kirby’s term “Activity,” thus restoring that uninflected, undifferentiated tone of “doing” that I feel is important. It may be impossible, after all is said, to completely escape from the accumulated popular idea about the older word, but in the following I’ll restrict my remarks to “Activity.”

Scores for activities are available at the exhibition.