Interior decorating. �Do it yourself.� Reducing and recycling. The wonderful book, �Readymade: How to Make (Almost) Everything,� is appropriate for readers with any of these passions.
The term �readymade� was borrowed from Dada art’s icon Marcel Duchamp, who is cited as the patron saint of the book, with emphasis on his adage, �Anything can be beautiful.�
The authors even prepare the reader with a manifesto of vows to be at least humored. From the outset, it is obvious how playful the whole book is.
By Joel Brown,
Contributor
Interior decorating. �Do it yourself.� Reducing and recycling. The wonderful book, �Readymade: How to Make (Almost) Everything,� is appropriate for readers with any of these passions.
The term �readymade� was borrowed from Dada art’s icon Marcel Duchamp, who is cited as the patron saint of the book, with emphasis on his adage, �Anything can be beautiful.�
The authors even prepare the reader with a manifesto of vows to be at least humored. From the outset, it is obvious how playful the whole book is.
Some of what the manifesto includes is attempting to �Keep all consumer goods in circulation, and out of the big Wal-Mart in the sky, by reusing them.� The manifesto also praises collaboration and awareness of process, while frowning on �finished works.� The authors also advise to �love your inner scavenger.�
These masters of the makeshift even give their projects in categories of material, each material being introduced with its own personal history of human use. The chapters are paper, plastic, wood, metal, glass, and fabric.
Each history is framed through clever lines such as, �How did we get from the first cave scratchings to the Victoria’s Secret catalog?� and �The ash bin of history. From burning spears to the Duraflame log.�
As if this was not all fascinating enough, each project is presented with a full-page color photograph and step-by-step instructions on how you can construct your own.
All projects therein meet these criteria: to look handsome, to incorporate a common object, to challenge the do-it-yourselfer, to recontextualize the material at hand, and to inspire by example.
�Readymade� is sure to exercise the brain, reevaluating every �junk� package and commodity, while astronomically expanding notions of usefulness. It is all a series of steps in what the authors dub, �your march against passive domesticity.�
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