Duchampian News & Views
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A Comparative Analysis of Duchamp and Dr. Dre.
August 6, 2011 "Neither Dre nor DuChamp were happy in their circles, however, so they formed new ones. Dre left Death Row and formed Aftermath, while DuChamp formed the Societe Anonyme. These would be the organizations the dudes would stick wit’. DuChamp continued exploring the relationship between the artist and spectator with kinetic mobiles – moving sculptures and conceptual extensions of his readymade works like The Fountain. Dre did the same, rapping on Dr. Dre Present.. read more... -
The Sartorialist Celebrates Man Ray’s Contributions to Bondage Fashion
August 6, 2011 Calling this fashion season's dabbling in BDSM regalia a "perfect storm" of mainstream-meets-subversive, the Sartorialist has put out a photo-slide show documenting the influence of fetish culture on high style (and perhaps the reverse.) Among some of the most provocative entries are Man Ray's still powerful images of bound and submissive women, including a classical greek nude armless and roped tightly. If they'd wanted to be a bit less literal, the Sartorialist.. read more... -
Marjorie Perloff: Endgame and the “End of Art”
August 5, 2011 A bit ago, I posted a selection from Arthur Danto’s “The Physical Disenfranchisement of Art” in which he elucidated upon his conception for the “end of art.” In her book, Radical Artifice, Marjorie Perloff continues in the vein of his initial investigation. She calls upon John Cage, Marcel Broodthaers, and Charles Bernstein for her investigation at the beginning of her first chapter, “Avant-Garde or Endgame?” “But.. read more... -
Thing/Thought: Fluxus at MOMA
August 4, 2011 Recently we covered the exhibition of editions at the Gallery Perrotin in Paris, which featured catalogs, multiples, and posters, by Takashi Murakami, Joseph Beuys and Marcel Duchamp. The issue came up then as to whether and how the artist-signed reproductions, manufactured series, and microcosmic miniatures (like the Box en Valise, kits which held small versions of Duchamp's entire ouevre), can be vehicles for the democratization of art or simply more efficient means o.. read more... -
Annals of the Surreal
August 3, 2011 "Lilliputia, the MIdget City: If dreamland is a laboratory for Manhattan, Midget City is a laboratory for Dreamland. Three hundred midgets who had been scattered across the continent as attractions at World's Fairs are offered a permanent experimental community here, 'a bit of old Nuremberg m the fifteenth century.' Since the scale of Midget City is half the scale of the real world, the cost of building this cardboard utopia is, at least theoretically, quartered, so that.. read more... -
On Anamorphosis
July 31, 2011 "Distortion may lend itself...to all the paranoiac ambiguities, and every possible use has been made of it, from Arcimboldi to Salvador Dali. I will go so far as to say that this fascination complements what geometral researches into perspective allow to escape from vision. How is it that nobody has ever thought of connecting this with...the effect of an erection? Imagine a tattoo traced on the sexual organ ad hoc in the state of repose and assuming its, if I may say s.. read more... -
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Hermetic Duchamp?
July 31, 2011"Marcel Duchamp had exhibited found objects as art with his famous urinal. But Duchamp’s art is hermetic, introverted, it doesn’t go out to the viewer. Rauschenberg’s reflects his own personality: it’s extrovert, generous, non-judgmental.” -Ealan Wingate, co-curator of the current Rauschenberg exhibition in Edinburgh
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Surrealist Lab: Whose Unconscious? (Part 2)
July 29, 2011 In a recent post, "With A Lunatic Gesture We Forsook Jujitsu" (Automatism A), I tried my hand at some automatic writing. This was a practice codified by the Surrealists under the direction of Andre Breton, but its provenance dates to long before that. Its purpose has depended on the historical circumstance. For instance, it used to be seen by 19th century psychics as a way of channeling supernatural sources, even aliens. For others, namely the Beat poets, it was mer.. read more...