I thank the folks at alt.surrealism for not having flash mobbed
sci.lang. As reward I give you my list of symbols I found in
Marcel Duchamp's Great Glass at Philadelphia.
WATER life / MOTIONS active life, live / REVOLVING MOTIONS
organic life / WARMTH liveliness / AIR, GAZEOUS MATTER
spirit (Hebrew ru-ach, Greek pneuma, Latin spiritus) / PERFUME
attractive / TOBACCO SMOKE inspiring (in Duchamp's opinion;
I quit smoking a long time ago and am glad about it) / SOLID
MATTER being, existence / METALS human existence / GLASS
art - Leonardo said a painting must be like a mirror filling itself
with the images of the surrounding objects; you may also look
out a window and imagine the images being kept in the glass
ONE unity / TWO polarity / THREE, NINE all, everything /
LINES, ONE DIMENSION seing, thinking, feeling, dispositions
/ ROUND AND STRAIGHT are like feeling and thinking - with
feelings alone you'd walk around in circles, and with thinking
alone you'd bump into the next wall / PLANE, TWO DIMENSIONS
picture, language / SPACE, THREE DIMENSIONS body, living
being, world, reality / FOUR DIMENSIONS art as a way of life,
erotic, also true understanding / LA MARIEE MISE A NU PAR
SES CELIBATAIRES, MEME, MARCEL DUCHAMP Mona Lisa
looked at by all her many visitors in the Louvre, smiles at me,
loves me, Leonardo da Vinci (she was actually smiling at him
when he painted her) - the picture, destined for the public, is
only understood by the painter Leonardo and his fellow artist
Marcel Duchamp
THE BRIDE Mona Lisa, and her ironical paraphrase in the
Great Glass / HER BACHELORS her viewers, the public, their
constrainted life (consider Duchamp's time) / THE MARRIAGE
symbol for the real seeing and understanding of a picture such
as the Mona Lisa, in the metaphorical sense a fulfilled life
LOVE GAS Mona Lisa's fame, her beauty / THREE VEILS OF
GAZE her changing facial expressions / APPEARANCE OF
AN APPEARANCE Duchamp's Glass as ironical paraphrase
of the Mona Lisa, shown as a mechanical-anatomical color
shadow, thus combining Leonardo's different fields of work and
interests, namely mechanics, anatomy, and painting
CEMETERY symbol of the museum, where liveless paintings
showing long dead people hang on the walls - and liveless in
a double sense as a famous painting like the Mona Lisa is not
understood / THE HANGED ONE picture hanging in a museum /
HER BACHELORS still and silent visitors, living just a half live
UNIFORMS human and especially male professions, all
too constrained ways of life (consider again Duchamp's time
between the World Wars - one over, the other one dawning) /
SEXUAL PLANE language / CHOCOLATE GRINDER body,
organism / CHOCOLATE organic matter / ROLLERS organs
/ BAJONET spine / SCISSORS visual apparatus, crossed
optical nerves / SLED psyche / PARALLELEPIPED mind,
consciousness / SKIDS OR RUNNERS subconscious or
unconscious / WATER WHEEL soul / PLUMB WEIGHTS
our needs, coming up, being satisfied, going down, keeping
the soul in motion / WATERFALL life / EMANCIPATED
METALS animated matter / LUMINOUS GAS human
spirit, enlightment / FLIPPERY talents / NINE SAMPLE
THREADS we human beings, all equal, all different (MD
let nine threads, one meter long each, fall from a height of
one meter, whereupon they curved, each in their own way,
yielding individual measures - all the same, each unique /
SIEVES institutions of the society like family, schools,
church, factory, office, barracks, and so on
ACTIVITIES ON THE RIGHT SIDE what happens when one
looks at a painting, the Mona Lisa, the Great Glass itself /
BOXING MATCH first problems of getting acces to the
picture / DROPS parts of our own life we project into the
painting / THEIR REFLECTION Mona Lisa appears lively
when we look into her eyes, yet it is our own life we project
into her, and we get it back via her smile whose expression
depends on us / BACHELORS AS A HALLUCINATION OF
THE BRIDE while we are looking into her eyes we get quiet,
while she comes to life -- yet when we are looking for a very
long time into her eyes, it seems as if she were dreaming,
and perceiving us like mere shadows whisking across her
long lasting dream ...
NINE BULLET HOLES the various interpretations of the picture
(Mona Lisa, Great Glass) / AIM OF THE SHOTS true meaning
of these pictures (Mona Lisa an Allegory of Seeing, Great Glass
an Allegory of Not Understanding) / LENS eye / MANDALA
visual field, with a central "ray" of clear vision, and a wide area
of unclear seeing, as explained by Leonardo in at least seven
passages of his writings / THREE NIMBI Leonardo - Duchamp
- we (eye witnesses, those who understand)
Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch
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