Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Tuesday 22 February 2011

Marcel Duchamp: Verbal Recursion (Three Plays)


.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Austrian_Postcard_1901.jpg

Austrian postcard, showing children playing: author unknown, 1901




Une nymphe amie d'enfance

Une infamie d'enfance


Marcel Duchamp: phonetical pun lost in translation (A nymph friend from childhood/An infamy from childhood)





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Toussaint_Der_junge_K%C3%BCnstler.jpg

The young artist: Pierre Joseph Toussaint (1822-1888), n.d.


http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c30000/3c30000/3c30200/3c30260v.jpg

Union Station waiting room, Chicago: photo by Jack Delano, January 1943 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)




A guest + a host = a ghost.



Marcel Duchamp: Jeu de mot phonetique en anglais (Un invité + un hôte = un fantôme.)




http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c30000/3c30000/3c30600/3c30646v.jpg

Union Station waiting room, Chicago
: photo by Jack Delano, January 1943 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/StateLibQld_1_290943_Volant_a_champion_14_foot_dinghy_in_Brisbane%2C_1907.jpg

Volant, champion 14 foot dinghy under sail in Brisbane
: photographer unknown, 1907 (John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland)



Les toiles, c'est laid.

L' étoile, aussi.



Rrose Sélavy: phonetical pun lost in translation (The canvasses are ugly. The star too.)





http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/StateLibQld_1_290947_Championship_of_Australia_racing_skiff_Ida_in_full_sail%2C_1909.jpg

Racing skiff Ida in full sail, Australia racing championship, 1909: photographer unknown, 1907 (John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland)



Text Sources:
first play: q. Arturo Schwarz in Marcel Duchamp: La Mariée Mise à Nu Chez Marcel Duchamp, Même, 1974
second play: from Marcel Duchamp: Marchand du sel, 1958
third play: from Marcel Duchamp: Marchand du sel, 1958

Duchamp texts from Marcel Duchamp: plays and wins/joue et gagne, Yves Arman, 1984

6 comments:

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Very nice indeed, these three plays of pictures and plays in words, some "lost in translation." some not ("a guest + a host = a ghost"). . . .


2.22

cloudless blue sky above still shadowed
ridge, waning white moon next to branch
in foreground, sound of wave in channel

say that anything may stand
there, and in fact is

here in the picture, to say
in days to come, more

grey white clouds to the left of point,
shadowed green of ridge across from it

Anonymous said...

These were all lovely encounters, words and pictures both. Lately it seems as though "lost in translation" is my middle name, so they feel relevant also. I like them all, but especially the children, the sailboats and the amazing Jack Delano Union Station photos. We spent part of Saturday among the Duchamps in the Philadelphia Museum, which really seemed to have come alive in anticipation of spring. You could definitely notice a difference in the air and on the walls. Last night more snow fell and, as they say, it is deja vu all over again.

Ed Baker said...

Rrose Sélavy !

jeesh
I betcha $17 that

NO BODDHI 'out there' knows

WITHOUT GOOGLING "Rrose Sélavy" who "she" is/was!.... !

TC said...

It does indeed feel like déja vu all over again, all over again, Curtis, these days, whatever it may be.

Say that anything may stand
there, and in fact is

here in the picture, standing
next to, for instance,

Rrose Sélavy.

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Back to this in the almost middle of the night, light shining down through Union Street Cathedral Rose Window a parallel recursion to half moon light out there above black pine branch. . . .


2.23

grey blackness of sky above still black
ridge, half moon by pine branch in left
foreground, no sound of wave in channel

consider that is the square,
which is not parallel

to observation of different
bodies, cause, spaces

cloudless blue sky reflected in channel,
shadowed green slope of ridge across it

Marie W said...

a guest + a host = a ghost!! Oh that's genius. Mot valise, in French. Luggage word. Which fits perfectly with those gorgeous photos of train stations. This made my morning....