Folding Traveler’s Itemimage by Marcel Duchamp
Brass Sandwich: With Hidden Noise (1916)
“Ball
of twine [sandwiched] between two brass plates, joined by four long screws,
containing unknown object added by Walter Arensberg”; makes noise when shaken;
MD never did know what secret object Arensberg, his friend & collector, had
placed inside.
Can
we please not say curator anymore?
Pet
peeve, sooo annoying…
Faithful
Walter Arensberg, Marcel’s main man
aided this readymade (came to its parade)
balled
up its silent shhh
Duchamp
loved all things mediumistic
— that old
dictation trope,
like
Spicer & his Martian spooks on a slick
It’s
always intuition, aint it with jazzers
shaken
&
rollicking Pls don’t stir
yourself
“Sandwich”
on the day’s 1916 menu
stuffed
with foresight on improv
Not Even Stolen: Comb (1916)
A
rusty black comb lying flat on an angle—a “plain, steel dog comb”
Oops,
off its date buy a mea culpa
Musta
been bad hair day at Wikiart
lent
this Readymade a ready escape
Their
not quite compleat works of Marcel…
But
here it is in the Duch’d all bible
Page
296, Plate 106: Comb,
February 1916
Aint
pretty aint ugly just unaesthetic as all
get
out of our face
i.e.,
perfect’o Readymade
We’d
have a bad one too, just touching
that
moldy slab of dog’s own
Plenty
meta irony in that little iron comb
That’s
no comb over, said Marcel
it
was not even stolen
Out of Order: Traveler’s
Folding Item (1916)
Light,
soft leather typewriter cover, black, with the brand name Underwood, standing
up empty. Origin lost; replica ‘found’, 1964
You’re reading
this before
it arrived
But really, it’s
backfill
& that’s
the story…
Don’t travel
without your
topped up
Underwood cover
Even if it gets
lost
—Stephen Bett
