User:Zoe van Peperstraten

DIGITAL CRAFT

For this practice of Digital craft, I have chosen to focus on the sculpture made by the artist Man Ray, called: L’Enigme d’Isidore Ducasse. The work that I have chosen is a remade, made in 1972. The original sculpture was made in 1920, but like so many of Man Ray’s early objects, the original work is lost. It consists of a sewing machine, wrapped in a blanket and tied with string. Man Ray’s idea of using a sewing machine was inspired by a simile used by the French writer, Isidore Ducasse, better known as the Comte de Lautréamont, ‘Beautiful as the accidental encounter, on a dissecting table, of a sewing machine and an umbrella’. They saw it as paradigmatic of a new type of surprising imagery, as well as replete with disguised sexual symbolism. (The umbrella was interpreted as a male element, the sewing machine as a female element, and the dissecting table as a bed.).

I find this sculpture very interesting. Although it’s been said that there is a sewing machine underneath the blaket, I still want to know if that’s really the case. But we will never know, the only person who knows is the artist itself. So what the object actually is, is left to your imagination. The first step I made was making photographs so that I could document it.

PLAN

After making the assignment we got for 24 of April, I had a lot of inspiration. Making the lies was the most important for me. It gave me ideas how to appropriate the sculpture. The lies I made were: Man ray never lost his original work. He simply re-used his original work to make this second work / This work is originally is no artwork. It’s a package that Man Ray had ordered. He thought it looked so interesting, so he used it as an artwork / There is no sewing machine under the blanket. The only thing that is underneath the blanket is air.

The plan I have for now is to recreate sculpture. There will be a peeking hole, so people can finally see what’s underneath the blanket. The sculpture I am going to make is hollow. Also there will be a light in it so you can see inside. But when you look inside, you still won’t know what is underneath is. Like I said, only the artist knows…right?

Assignment 2

Future Frame

Past Dresser