Date of Award
2007
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Visual Arts
Supervisor
David Merritt
Second Advisor
Collette Urban
Abstract
This text is an attempt to nuance the theoretical implications of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade by focusing on the temporal and performative qualities of the work. The readymade is also used to bring together a number of disparate concepts: it is discussed as an instance of Verwindung, as the concept is articulated by Gianni Vattimo, it is considered in light of Duchamp’s own notes and texts on inframince (infrathin), and finally, the readymade is characterized in terms of movement or displacement, using Michel de Certeau’s differentiation of “space” and “place” and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s description of the tandem practices of deterritorialization and reterritorialization. As a paradigm, the readymade illustratively brings together these convergent concepts, each describing an event, a coming-together, a movement, or a shift in the locus of meaning. These concepts are also applied to contemporary cultural production and practices that make use of the slippery and contingent space between art and life, spaces that the readymade has essentially opened up.
Recommended Citation
Fornwald, Blair M., "between nothing and something" (2007). Digitized Theses. 4598.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4598