I have a deep appreciation for modern art. I believe that it allows our concept of what art is to transcend traditional practices. It demonstrates how art can be an idea rather than a display of technical skill, and through that logic I have a better chance of being a good artist muahaha. Art class was my favorite thing in high school, and it was there that I learned about Marcel Duchamp’s notorious piece, “The Fountain”. The piece is literally just a urinal with a signature on it but it stands for much more than that. Duchamp stated that the piece is an everyday object, raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artists act of choice. It’s basically the original “it’s art because I said so.” Many people back in the day saw it to be a bit of a middle finger to the art world. Duchamp signed the piece under the alias R. Mutt which is some kind of play on a sanitary products company called Mott, but in high school we joked that he used a fake name because he was scared of how pissed off people were going to be that a urinal was his art. Anyway, this piece has been a favorite of mine for years and when I stumbled across it today near the end of my time at the Tate I was so excited. I was alone, giddy and smiling, taking pictures of a urinal and the people next to me kinda laughed at me, but really I feel bad for them that they don’t realize they were in the presence of the greatest urinal in the world, or at least one of the greatest. Technically it was a replica, but the original doesn’t exist anymore, it got destroyed or lost or something.
Theatre in London U of A 