Being profoundly offensive is the only way to do the work justice. To actually recreate it is not to recreate the original form, but the reaction it caused. The very point of the work includes that any urinal is just as good as any other, so why the pretence that this particular shape, the “R. Mutt” signature, has significance?
Looking at the replicas is like praying to ashes. I’m talking about passing on the fire.
so why the pretence that this particular shape, the “R. Mutt” signature, has significance?
Because reinterpretation is not an art historian’s job.
The original reaction is lost to time, dude. A modern audience is, broadly, already aware of the transgressive urinal, and so already more accepting of it. There is no recreating the piece. There is only recreating what it was.
Being profoundly offensive is the only way to do the work justice. To actually recreate it is not to recreate the original form, but the reaction it caused. The very point of the work includes that any urinal is just as good as any other, so why the pretence that this particular shape, the “R. Mutt” signature, has significance?
Looking at the replicas is like praying to ashes. I’m talking about passing on the fire.
Because reinterpretation is not an art historian’s job.
The original reaction is lost to time, dude. A modern audience is, broadly, already aware of the transgressive urinal, and so already more accepting of it. There is no recreating the piece. There is only recreating what it was.