April 26–27, 2008
The Getty Center

In 2008, the Getty Research Institute (GRI) published Allan Kaprow—Art as Life, a volume documenting the renowned postwar artist's life and work. This publication was inspired by the first international travelling retrospective of Kaprow's work, which drew heavily on the archive of the artist's papers held by the GRI. In March 2008, when The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), hosted the retrospective, the Getty Foundation and the GRI provided financial and organizational support for a citywide initiative in which Los Angeles-area art schools, academic institutions, arts organizations, museums, and artist-run spaces were invited to reinvent a diverse selection of Kaprow's Happenings.

The Getty Research Institute worked in partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and MOCA to reinvent Kaprow's Fluids—one of the artist's most ambitious Happenings. Fluids was first realized in 1967, with teams of volunteers building rectangular ice structures throughout the Los Angeles area. The Getty Research Institute commissioned the LA Art Girls to produce Overflow, a project conceived as both a historical homage to Kaprow's Fluids and a contemporary investigation of issues such as environmentalism and participation raised by the original work.

On April 26, 2008, the LA Art Girls and the Union Ice Company built an ice structure measuring approximately 30 feet long by 10 feet wide and 8 feet high at the Getty Center's Lower Terrace Sculpture Garden. This was followed by performances that referenced Fluid's ice theme. The following day, the LA Art Girls and other participants removed and repurposed the ice to various locations around the Getty campus.