quondam @ archinect/79/7911o.htm
What are the best April Fool's Jokes on Uranus?
Rita Novel 2005.04.01 12:01
come on, there's gotta be better jokes than this
urinal in a gallery OR being pissy
2000.03.16 22:30
If you want to see what a urinal in a gallery looks like, go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Duchamp gallery--the PMA has the world's foremost Duchamp collection--including, besides a urinal, The Large Glass, several Nude[s] Descending a Staircase, and the "phenomenal" Etant Donnes (which I'm very pleased to have taken a picture of with my digital camera).
I last visited this gallery 29 February 2000 (an extra day so I decided to spend in on art). It was a Tuesday, and the museum was not busy with visitors. This trip was a quest--I knew the urinal had a special, albeit hidden meaning, and I was determined to find out what that meaning was. Lucky for me the guard in the Duchamp gallery was a middle-aged man. I figured he was especially frustrated sexually due to standing watch in that particular gallery, what with unrecognizable (and dissatisfying) nudes walking down stairs, and a naked bride that "shatters" all hopes (and dreams) of having sex. [Of course, there is that spread-eagle girl behind the peep holes, but you can't see her face!] Anyway, with a wink and a nudge, I gave the guard a recent copy of PLAYBOY magazine. He smiled and began flipping through the pages feverishly. My plan was working because now I could lift up the urinal to see if there was any message to be found "underneath".
EUREKA!!!!
There it was, a tiny inscription in the Duchamp "font".
"I, Marcel Duchamp, sometime (drag) artist, fully INTEND for this urinal to stand as a monument to all those who gleefully piss their time away wondering about art, particularly art like this. In the future, everyone will piss for fifteen minutes"
I imagine Duchamp felt flushed with success, to say the least.
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