 Readymade Reddi Wip © 1997 Ginger Henry Geyer glazed porcelain with white gold detail 9 ½” x 3 ¼” diameter Adaptation of El Greco's Purification of the Temple, 1604 New biographies of Marcel Duchamp abound these days, for good reason: his contribution to art in the early 1900's revolutionized modern perception. We are still working through his wild ideas. This squirt can pays tribute to Duchamp's "readymades", the snow shovel, the urinal and other common manufactured items which he promoted to the status of art by simply selecting and signing them. He launched anew the big question of "what is art", with the disturbing suggestion to forget aesthetics. Art can be anything at all, and it is all around us. Which led to the questioning of technical skill, the definition of an artist, the value of meaning, of subject, etc. blah, blah, blah... But by reverting the focus of art from the eye to the mind, Duchamp made life abundantly more interesting. Are Duchamp's ideas destructive? Not entirely, but yes, they are subversive. He turned the art world on its ear...an effect not unlike that of Jesus at his radical best. Duchamp's term "readymade" is curious. Ready, Set, Go? Ready for what? Readiness, as in "Be Prepared? Or as in already prepared? Like ReddiWip? Jesus had a ready whip. He fashioned one quickly out of cords when he went in the Temple in Jerusalem and found all sorts of extortion going on. It is a fascinating story, Jesus getting mad. Some call it his “temple tantrum”. It doesn’t seem to go with the sweet and gentle figure who loved kids and sheep. But there it is in all four gospels, Jesus royally ticked off, making a ruckus in church, feathers, tables and coins flying. Unlike the conventional picture of him, we see a powerful liberal here, not only spilling money but threatening the very nature of worship and national economics. El Greco painted five versions of the purification of the temple, this one resides in the National Gallery of London. The image has become a strong symbol of reform --within the church, and within one's self, with the body itself taken as a metaphor for the temple. Whipped cream? All objects have associations— remember that sexy Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass record album cover with the whipped cream? Or the promised land of milk and honey, or skimming the cream off the top. What do we associate with readymades from our own religious traditions? What meaning do they insidiously carry? What does it take to get our attention to reform our everyday lives? A sudden spurt of violence, or something sweet and luxurious? 1Cor. 4:20-21: " For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip or in love and with a gentle spirit?" I Cor. 3:2 "I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready..." John2: 14-16 "In the Temple he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the Temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling doves, 'Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!'" |