Image: Huang Yong Ping, The Wise Man Learns from the Spider How to Spin a Web

This work is composed of a huge lampshade (a cage), a large live spider, and a table with a photocopy of Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp on it. (This photocopy of a Taiwan-published Chinese translation of the book was the only material on Duchamp in Chinese that I could find in Xiamen around 1985.) A light bulb projects the spider’s shadow on the book about Duchamp. This installation was first realized in Duchamp’s hometown, Rouen, for the exhibition Hommages à Marcel Duchamp. The title The Wise Man Learns from the Spider How to Spin a Web comes from the book by the Taoist alchemist Ge Hong (283–363 C.E.), who regarded the spider as a mysterious and inspiring animal, just like a sage. Does the sage refer to Duchamp? Or does the spider represent him? Is the spider more important than the sage, or vice versa? What is important, the spider or its shadow? We are reminded of the fact that Duchamp liked to use shadows, of the shadow of his Hat Rack. This work seems to address my relationship with Duchamp; I got to know Duchamp via this photocopy in Chinese and some other materials I came across by chance here and there. I consider this kind of “fragmentation” to be more reliable than “completeness.” I never think that it is a problem that I cannot really understand Duchamp because I don’t speak French. What is important is not discovering the real face of Duchamp, but what I actually get out of him. I always benefit from all sorts of “misunderstandings” and “distortions.” —HYP

Knowledge

Spider

Duchamp, Marcel

Sage Who Embraces Simplicity

Alchemy