In celebration of the centennial year of the creation of Marcel Duchamp’s “Bicycle Wheel” (1913), Reay’s “Tricycle Wheel” (2013) holds up a mirror to the original object, r…eflecting its materiality in a form for our time drawn from Ikea and Big Wheel. Thus informed, this reflection of Duchamp’s idea becomes appropriate for this the new century. Duchamp did not think of Bicycle Wheel as a work of art, describing his fabrication as “just a distraction”… saying later “I didn’t have any special reason to do it, or to describe anything.” It was an amusement… “to see the wheel turning was very soothing and comforting… I enjoy looking at it just as I enjoy looking at flames dancing in the fireplace”.
Both pieces confront the momentous question posed by Marcel Duchamp, “Can one make works which are not works of ‘art’”. Being an amusement about something, “Tricycle Wheel” (2013) says “No”… though as a precursor to the readymade “it’s a form of denying the possibility of defining art.”
Both pieces confront the momentous question posed by Marcel Duchamp, “Can one make works which are not works of ‘art’”. Being an amusement about something, “Tricycle Wheel” (2013) says “No”… though as a precursor to the readymade “it’s a form of denying the possibility of defining art.”
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