At some point last week, while laying out the 61 works that will be in my Readymade@100 show I had the brilliant idea of using Duchamp's "Large Glass"(1) as a template for placement of our multifarious works. If you are familiar with the "Glass" you may recall a kind of half-arch, or "post-and-lintel-minus-one," in the upper portion known as "The Bride's Domain." In a moment of tenacious reverence for "all things Duchamp," I envisioned the Katzen Arts Center's semicircular, south end of the ground floor, embodying the "Draft Pistons or Nets" and "The Bride" and her ""Sex Cylinder," being composed of Mazin Abdelhameid's "#FOUND," John Perrault's "Something Stolen by Mark Cameron Boyd or someone he designates," Renee Regan's "Balance of Dignity and Desire," Chris Chernow's "Tensions," Vanessa Niederstrasser's "Just Picked," Alex Mayer's "Untitled #2" and Christian Meade's "Smith."
This brainstorm came to an abrupt and resolute end when I realized that the lower portion of the "Glass" would require something like twelve pedestals to represent the "Nine Malic Molds," not to mention the erstwhile "Chocolate Grinder."
Perhaps someone will make another attempt at this in 2114?
In any case, please do come to our opening this Saturday, September 6th, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the Katzen. I am certain you will be astounded, amused and in awe of what Duchamp hath wrought in one hundred years.
IMAGE: MCB's "Installation Map" with numeric locations corresponding to the master "By Orders" listing of where the sixty-one artworks are to be placed.
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1. The official title, "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even," became known as "The Large Glass." The original version, with broken glass, sits in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1966, British artist Richard Hamilton created a replica of the "Glass," with instructions and guidance from Duchamp, and they both agreed, according to Duchamp's biographer, Calvin Tomkins, that it "was as close as anyone could come to the way it had looked before the glass was broken." Both Duchamp and Hamilton signed it as a joint work and it's in the Tate Modern collection in London.
