Mix ‘n Match

Mix ‘n Match was an artwork conceived for Readymade@100, an exhibition curated by artist, art theorist, and Corcoran College of Art and Design professor Mark Cameron Boyd. Readymade@100 celebrated the 100th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade concept. The juried exhibition included contemporary artist’s submissions of “new” readymades that significantly expand upon Duchamp’s originary idea, thus celebrating Duchamp’s vision and developing the concept.

In this work, the museum visitor was invited to participate in the production of a assisted readymade. The instructions were simply to selectively place, reorder or remove the provided colored disks on the canvas with the objective of doing nothing except to experience the joy of color.

This “rectified readymade” appropriates Damien Hirsts’ readymade idea of the Spot Paintings, an artistic idea that according to the artists website sought to do “nothing, … [except] find a way of pinning down the joy of colour”. These artworks have been prolifically reproduced with the existence of 1000+ today. Given this mass-production, the Spot Paintings can be viewed as manufactured commodities. The 1000+ disks provided, are products created by Hoysted for use in a past exhibition “The Candy Store”, now re-appropriated and re-contextualized as “spots” provided for your intervention with the readymade idea.

For further information see Mark Cameron Boyd’s essay and the 4th Order at Readymade@100