December 18th, 2007
Slice of the cake
Most of you will be familiar with Duchamp through his ‘readymades’ work… you know, like the signed urinal.
But take a minute to look at some of his earlier work like A Nude Descending a Staircase. Not too shabby, eh?
Actually – and I don’t mean to sound like a school trip – there’s quite a good flash based site here if you want to learn about him a bit more… far better than that wiki lark.
The one thing that does it for me though is his use of humour in art. Still, people tend to frown on that sort of thing – being funny – but for me there is no greater indicator of intelligence than being able to be funny whilst you have something serious to say.
Philip J Schadenfreude on 
[...] The Flowfield Unity placed an observative post today on Slice of the cakeHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
Art shouldn’t be funny. It should be
serious, and not toilet humor. It shouldn’t
be nude neither; art should be fully
clothed, so nobody is offended. Art should
be for the masses, not only for the people
who can afford it. Art should be taxed like me.
I can never tell whether you’re being serious or not…
“art should be fully
clothed, so nobody is offended”
Should I believe that you think that… surely not…
Don’t fall for her tricks Adam! Just don’t do it: you’ll never make it back alive! Arrrrggggghghghggg!
things to do in new year:
1. Buy Seraphine decoder
2. Order new Roo
Sorry Adam. Some of my
cheeks are tongue in post.
Hehehe. Cheeks in tongue!
What a Cheeky thing to say!
This comic made me laugh out loud. Bravo, Adam!
Duchamp is awesome. I’ve actually seen that toilet in person. It was akin to a life changing experience, except that my life was the same afterwards. Dada!
Actually, I was talking to this fellow in the Art History department here the other day, and he was telling me about a group that is trying to locate Duchamp’s sources for his ready-made pieces. There’s a fairly complete archive of catalogues from the time he was working, and no one has ever been able to locate his sources. Also, it turns out that Duchamp, early in life, worked in iron, and ceramic, etc., in the manufacturing business. So the theory goes that he actually made all of his ready-mades from scratch. It seems just a bit far fetched to me, but the Dada in me really approves of the idea — all these years, and Duchamp has been laughing at us from Heaven.
That would just be too cool. Seriously, if that were the case it would break something inside me out of sheer joy.
And if not, it’s still a rather excellent urban myth that I’m sure Duchamp would approve of.
I have a habit (as does Ms-Em) of wanting to touch art pieces I see ‘in the flesh’… not sure I could resist test driving that one.
Where abouts did you see it?
Actually, it turns out the original was lost some time in the 40’s or 50’s, and in the mid 50’s Duchamp ordered “authorized reproductions,” for a couple of museums (Philadelphia, San Fransisco, London), of which I saw the one owned by the Tate Modern, in London. I can’t remember if they placed it with the Surrealist show they were having when I was there, or the Minimalism show… I just remember it being an odd choice.
I do the want-to-touch thing too. The (mildly) well renowned sculptress Darcy Meeker (www.darcymeeker.com), who has her home and studio here, is an advocate for touching: at her shows she invites everyone to caress the sculptures.
Anyone that works with copper scores highly in my book… though I like to see it corrode and change from pink to green.
I saw a statue in DC this past weekend that was very VERY green. Like, green like a plant. It made me happy inside.
Also: why does the thing say “8 comments,” and all I see is six?
Yeah, I noticed that earlier… i think there may be a couple of ‘trackbacks’ posted in the comments, but they always seem like a waste of time so i have them set to not show… but the shouldn’t be counted either…
Phantom comments.
This brings so many bad jokes to my brain, such as “aiming to win” and “it’s only a wee award.”
That’s some nice work there, GW… and as they say, better out than in.
oh lhooq! armitage shanks!