Three Standard Stoppages
(after Marcel Duchamp)

Three Standard Stoppages, according to Marcel Duchamp, was one of the key works in his development as an artist. He said,"In itself it was not an important work of art, but for me it opened the way -- the way to escape from those traditional methods of expression long associated with art. I didn't realize at the time what I had stumbled on. When you tap something, you don't always recognize the sound. That's apt to come later. For me the Three Standard Stoppages was a first gesture liberating me from the past."
(found in: tout-fait :The Marcel Duchamp Journal On-line, Issue 1/Vol1, December 1999) (read as pdf)

Three Standard Stoppages was one of Duchamp's works that has always intrigued me as I am also very fond of chance. So in the summer of 2007 I decided to try to reproduce the work according to his modus operandi which was to take a metre long thread and drop it from a metre in height and then trace the resulting form. I attempted this with normal household 3ply twine which I cut in a metre length and unravelled the three threads of the rope giving me 3 metre long threads. You see below one of the results of many attempts to have the threads fall in the same smoothly undulating pattern preserved in Duchamp`s works . At no time was I able to reproduce his work. It seems that no one else has been able to reproduce his work either. Which raises some interesting questions as to how Duchamp actually constructed the work. For an interesting discussion go to:
(tout-fait:The Marcel Duchamp Journal On-line, Issue 1/Vol1, December 1999) (read as pdf)