C for CAMERA OBSCURA (REVERSED)

Abstract

This essay discusses Marcel Duchamp’s Étantdonnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gazd’éclairage … (Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas …), or Given as a camera obscura. It focuses not on the brightly lit assemblage, but on the door that separates it from the viewer and the dark space immediately in front of it, the space outside Given. Through a methodology of ‘redrawing’ Given, it argues the image making abilities of the piece, defines this boundary between its interior and exterior as a ‘Looking Door’,and suggests that the hidden significance of Given might lie not behind the door, but in front of it.