Artist Proflie: Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain"

For my artist post, I wanted to pursue an artist that operated in the duration of the Dada movement, in particular the category of appropriation; due to its ties to image-appropriation in digital media creation.  I wanted to explore this relationship, and thought perhaps it would assist me in inspiration for my first digital media project, which will involve an extensive amount of digital appropriation of photographs.

Duchamp was a member of the New York Dadaist movement in the late 1950s, operating within a larger, international movement, although European and American Dada movements differed slightly, especially in terms of subject matter and artistic goals.  European Dada was a direct response to the horrors of WWI, and was thusly much graver, whereas the New York movement was less "serious."

source: wikipedia.org

Duchamp's artistic legacy is extensive and spans many artistic phases, but I wish to concentrate on his contribution and exploration in Dada, specifically his well-known and famous work, "Fountain," ca. 1917.  In this work, Duchamp appropriates a latrine toilet, places it on a wall, and declares it art.  However, this seemingly simple work actually helps illustrate the meaning of art: an idea and meaning applied to an object, rather than the object itself.  Placed into a exhibitory context, this latrine becomes a piece of art, with an alternate meaning, and an alternate idea behind it.  I wish to pursue a similar exploration, the expression of an idea through the morphed meaning of appropriated objects and images, through my first digital project.