Ready-made (2016)
Watercolor on paper
20 x 20 inches
The first thing that springs to my mind when hearing the term “Ready-made” is the name Marcel Duchamp. He coined the term in the early twentieth century art movement, Dada, with the famed work entitled Fountain, (1917).
Fountain was submitted to an exhibition organized by the Society of Independent Artists, which was “open to all” yet took exception to this piece in particular. Duchamp’s submission of a urinal signed by the fictional character “R. Mutt” was totally shocking. So much so that it apparently disappeared after being submitted to the exhibition. The only known record of its existence is in a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz.
What made this work so earth shattering wasn’t the work itself but rather the idea that ANYTHING can be considered a work of art – so long as the artist deems it to be so. I can imagine what Duchamp had in mind when he found the urinal and hauled it back to his studio. I’m sure he had some bone to pick. Why else? It’s kind of inflammatory. In fact, I think I’m a little bit pissed right now. He wanted to enter something into the exhibit, but not something he actually worked on himself. That could be considered the ultimate insult to another artist exhibiting work and Dada thought it was funny. Time to make work is valuable; especially for an artist like Duchamp, who was a successful painter and sculptor. By choosing to show a toilet, he basically gave the middle finger to the establishment by elevating his hand-made work above and beyond the other work in the exhibition.
Insult wasn’t the point though. Or was it? Dada, as an organization of artists, was a reactionary movement intended to disrupt the perception of reality during and after the turbulent political period of WWI. The fact that the carnage of war could be sanitized with political jargon/agendas, and rationalized by a cause and effect ideology, was absurd to Dada. It was so absurd that they decided to visually reflect these issues by making irrational, nonsensical and often offensive work.
I believe our current perception about water usage, food production and the impact of human activity on the environment is completely nonsensical; World War-ish in fact. I feel like the wasteful, infrastructure-intensive systems we have built for the sake of modern living have created a gigantic disconnect from the practical knowledge base of self-care and sustainable community development. For instance, in Florida, my native state, the city of Cape Coral found it illegal to have a residential dwelling that is not connected to the grid. Since when did being a self-sustained citizen become illegal? As of 2014, that’s when. If that’s not absurd policy then I don’t know what is.
Did I miss the fineprint and really sign up for this? How has our society become so polarized that living within our means has become an issue? Why are people so upset about saving energy and consuming less? As an individual born in the 20th century and living as an adult in the 21st century of recycling, it’s easy to feel like the less conservative practices we learned as children have become alienated by the next generation of oh-my-god-you-can’t-throw-that-away state of mind. Now I can see how one takes the stance of, “Don’t worry, I already took the garbage out and you can shove your recycling bin where the sun doesn’t shine… at the bottom of the landfill.”
Uncomfortable yet? Maybe just a little, or is this funny? I’m not really sure myself and so, this is where I turn to work. When I’m thinking about independent, ecologically-balanced life systems, or understanding how stability is a matter of conservation and careful use of resources, all the doom and gloom and uncertain angry mindfulness becomes irrelevant. The process of building studio Hydrostatic and producing food on a rooftop that’s three parking spaces wide (in the middle of winter) has helped put this into perspective.
So, exactly how are we doing all this in such a small space? Well, it takes a giant urinal and I’ll elaborate on that in the next post.
