Arad pays tribute to Marcel Duchamp, the 20th-century pioneer of conceptual art. In 1914, Duchamp bought, titled and signed a bottle-rack made from galvanised iron from a Paris department store. The first definition of a readymade, published in Andre Breton and Paul Eluard’s “Abridged Dictionary of Surrealism” says it must be “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist”. The works straddle the readymades of Duchamp and the formal sculptures of John Chamberlain, which used car bodies as raw material. In the exhibition “Flat Mates”, Arad modifies the very same bottle-rack claimed by Duchamp, subverting the concept of the readymade itself.

Source: The Nation Bangkok January 03, 2018 09:22 UTC