“I Have a Toilet Displayed on My Verandah”
The term found object was applied to Dada art, in particular Marcel Duchamp’s urinal (actually possibly “made” by Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven).
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
As a tribute to him – to the Baroness, I have a toilet displayed on my verandah deck. Every day I find it – no, it finds me and I return the finding.
Which comes first – the find or the being found?
I look around in my living room. Books – so many, all with titles, a Butsudan, rocks, pebbles, shells – so many. Four couches with cushions, lamps, bits of wire, pottery, paintings, a tapestry, twigs, a card proclaiming “Music” in Chinese, a Japanese lantern ……
And through the windows, trees and clouds and sun. And on the deck chairs and table – and toilet.
All of them calling to me, wanting my attention, wanting to be found. Their arms all waving like excited children.
They’ve all found me. They all want me.
And I respond as openly as I can. Now I’m finding them.
Now we have found one another.
And then we all thank the Baroness.
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I found out about the Baroness in a newspaper clipping I’d kept for some years – and now found.
Or did she find me?
