Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Duchamp, Duchimp, Duchump!

I wrote about Michael Bracewell's amazing book on Roxy Music and POP ART here when I first read it.  I'm actually re-reading it now.


I think there is something so exciting about that POP moment that exploded in the 60's.  And it dawned on me that Richard Hamilton, England's prime "Duchampian," was a huge influence on me back when I was just a bright-eyed little boy.  Well before I knew what a "Duchampian" could be.


The first piece of "art" that I ever put up on my bedroom wall when I was just a wee lad was Hamilton's Beatles poster...



And I think the first "art-work" I ever created was my own little Beatles collage which I tacked up next to it.  Whatever happened to it?  And the first rock and roll album I ever owned, (the cover was designed by Hamilton), and called my own was "The White Album."


There was something breath-taking about that cover.  Really.  Something about the pure whiteness of it that was mysterious, and captivating.


What's funny, I realize all these many years later that I am basically a "collagist" in the Hamiltonian mode.  Whether I'm writing a play for Black Forest, or writing a song for whitewolfsonicprincess, I am taking bits and pieces from many different influences and putting them together.  Trying to make new, connected things out of many unconnected things.  Very, very Richard Hamilton channeling Duchamp!