Week 5 White Cube
Submitted by turand04 on Tue, 2007-02-06 10:23.Week 5
"Inside the White Cube" seemed different this week, though it may have been simply O'Doherty's lack of self-gratification that made it more enjoyable.
The simple concept of taking the space that's never used and converting it so your art dominates the room was a stroke of genius on Duchamp's part, then combining it with a factor that people find unbelievable (say, suspending 1,200 bags of coal from the ceiling?) and you get an art piece that centers the viewer's attention and keeps it there. Personally, I'm curious how many of the modern artists have figured out the magnetic properties of a ceiling or a doorframe and if so, why haven't they acted on it?
Something that i thought was quite funny in this reading was the way other artists whose art shared the same viewing space as Duchamp's could not really raise any protest over the art rendering theirs nigh-invisible simply because Duchamp would point out that he'd simply taken the space no one else wanted. since I know absolutely nothing about gallery-space regulations and rules today, I have to wonder how someone like Duchamp (or just anyone who wants to create similar work) would go about securing his medium since fire-codes and safety hazard regulation might severely restrict the creativity.
- Andrew T.
