DUCHAMP - HIGHER DIMENSIONS

Marcel Duchamp, famously known for works like “Fountain” which push the envelope of question, generated quite an eclectic portfolio of works and styles throughout his life. As an omnivorous master of many mediums, Duchamp challenged the status quo through novel expression, generating deep ideological structures that were decades ahead of his time.

As Picasso unfolded and expressed three-dimensional forms on a pseudo two-dimensional plane, known as Cubism, Marcel Duchamp took it a step further (no pun intended) with Nude Descending Staircase, and the more famous Nude Descending Staircase No.2. In both works, he utilizes Picasso’s concept of Cubism, while simultaneously integrating the looseness of motion. Drawing homage to Cubism, Duchamp shows multiple geometric angles of the figure at once, however, He also painted the figure at point A (top left of staircase) and point B (bottom right of staircase) with figural assumptions in-between, signifying slices of time.

Einstein concluded that time is the fourth dimension, relative to the third-dimension. In Duchamp’s work, we can see a compartmentalized version of a figure that is and has experienced time, hence, he paints the fourth dimension, all compressed upon a pseudo two-dimensional plane.

*I say pseudo, because, a canvas, or for example even a sheet of paper, or anything we assume to be two-dimensional, is actually a three-dimensional structure, as it has width, height, and depth. Zooming in on something we perceive to be perfectly flat, on a minute scale, will show ridges, bumps, and imperfections. So, pseudo two-dimensional means, in this sense, what one generally assumes to be flat.

GJON MILI

Drawing inspiration from Duchamp’s iconic articulation of time, Gjon Mili, an Albanian photographer, creates a series of works that demonstrates this concept in a method more aligned with traditional figure. Utilizing strobing effects, Mili captures motion over time through the lens, rather than the brush.

It is intriguing that, over (what we subjectively perceive as) time, ideas unfold, proliferate, polymerize, and become something anew, and if at any point viewing said wholistic structure of the evolution of ideas becomes dimensionally possible, it would be something of beauty, though perhaps something incomprehensible for a single individual.

Human creativity is truly something worth cherishing, and with it we generate meaning, culture, romance, and something worth protecting, in perpetuity.

Article by Matt Sauer

MARCEL DUCHAMP

Nude Descending Staircase No. 2, 1912