In recent decades, artists have continued to explore ways of incorporating
readymade objects into their work, including through a strain of the approach that takes off directly from the fetishization of consumer goods.
Not exact matches
By fusing the convention of the
readymade or found
objects with the exploration of visceral material, his work captures a tension between order and disarray ¬ — chaos gradually rising
into a solid coherent mass.
Cole's work is generally discussed in the context of postmodern eclecticism, combining references and appropriation ranging from African and African American imagery, to Dada's
readymades and Surrealism's transformed
objects, and icons of American pop culture or African and Asian masks,
into highly original and witty assemblages.
Nouveau réalistes made extensive use of collage and assemblage, using real
objects incorporated directly
into the work and acknowledging a debt to the
readymades of Marcel Duchamp.
Beat Zoderer, who both, radically reworks
readymade materials, often transforming everyday
objects from a wide range of cultures
into startling works of art is at the same time a sensitive and spectacular sculptor in the more formal sense.
The term assemblage typically denotes work constructed from found
objects that have been manipulated or recombined, but Bender's approach to assemblage blurs
into a Duchampian presentation of
readymades.
The term «found
object» is a literal translation from the French objet trouvé, meaning
objects or products with non-art functions that are placed
into an art context and made part of an artwork; what we now call «the
readymade» is an updated version of that idea.
Frequently pairing
readymades with alternately fabricated and hand - crafted
objects, the work consistently interrogates modes of display, transforming the act of presentation
into a subject unto itself.
By simply placing the
readymade object in a new context, it was transformed
into art.
Arranged with minimal simplicity, Steinbach's seemingly random assortment of
readymade objects forms part of his ongoing enquiry
into the ways in which meaning is structured and modified.
It is a way of transforming «When Attitudes Become Form»
into a
readymade, or an archeological
object that is restored by putting together its different fragments.
In «New Geometries,» one of Gibson's shaped canvas paintings uses the armature of an old ironing board multivalent in meaning: a
readymade, shaped canvas; an homage to his grandmother who was a meticulous housekeeper; and the transformation of a domestic
object into a power
object — a shield.
Duchamp distinguished his «
readymades» from other «found
objects» by stating that, whereas «found
objects» are chosen for their interesting aesthetic qualities, «
readymades» are mass - produced
objects transformed
into art by the artist's mere act of selection - thus no exercise of taste is required or implied.
Often working with
readymade objects such as Barbie dolls, fishnet stockings, opera costumes, and wedding dresses, sculptor and installation artist E. V. Day delves
into the cultural fetishism by manipulating women's fashion and undergarments.
It is a way of transforming «When Attitudes Become Form»
into a
readymade, or an archeological
object that is restored by putting together its different fragments.The new vision results from the dislocation and display in Venice, which provide further interpretation and additional meanings related not only to the history, but to our present time as well.
Expanding on Marcel Duchamp's concept of the
readymade, Rauschenberg imbued new significance to such ordinary
objects as a patchwork quilt or an automobile tire by combining unrelated items and incorporating them
into the context of art.
And perhaps more importantly, through a process of creating and then painting bronzes, Gavin Turk builds high - art sculptures that act as «fake»
readymades, calling
into question every assumption we have about viewing
objects — from McDonald's wrappers, to the glittering stadiums that tower above them.
The sculpture is a masterful example of how to incorporate
readymade items like the bracelets
into cohesive artworks that benefit from the
objects» cultural context without entirely depending on it, a balancing act some artists twice his age still seem to be struggling with.
The items include quotidian
objects such as pillows, furniture, and potted plants; the conversion of these items
into art subjects is obvious, given the inclusion of Duchamp's infamous
readymade urinal in the stack of items.
The sculptures conflate the
readymade and the monumental, transforming humble
objects into abstract symbols of transcendence and the biological, reflecting and affirming viewers and their environments.
The artists take up formal elements of design and architecture classics with site - specific installations, sculptures, pictorial
objects and
readymades, but above all enter
into a discussion with these linked radical approaches and democratic ideals.
Associated with the New British Sculpture movement since the end of the 1970s, Richard Wentworth operates in what he has termed a «
readymade landscape,» transforming everyday
objects such as tables, light bulbs, ladders, and buckets
into new assemblages.