Alison Knowles

Who is Alison Knowles?

Alison Knowles is an American artist who produces work that incorporates performance, radio and sound, papermaking and printmaking. Knowles was very active in the Fluxus movement, and continues to create work inspired by her Fluxus experience. Criteria that have come to distinguish her work as a female artist are the arena of performance, the indeterminacy of her "event scores" resulting in the deauthorization of the work, and the element of tactile participation in her performances and object-based work. She graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York with an honors degree in fine art. Knowles was married to the Fluxus artist and prominent intermedia theorist, Dick Higgins, from 1960 to 1970, and again from 1984 until Higgins' death in 1998.

In the 1960s Knowles was an active participant in New York City's downtown artist community, making work alongside Marcel Duchamp and John Cage. During this time she began producing scores; events that rework everyday activities into performances that incorporate music.

Knowles's performance work incorporates visual, aural, and tactile elements. The aspect of touch is a distinct element that sets Knowles apart from male Fluxus artists.