Artists only eat their replicas 
when disturbed, fearing for the original’s life. 

~ David Stavanger from 'Bottlerack(et)' 


Delve into the conceptual and absurdist mind Marcel Duchamp through a series of poetic responses and new perspectives dedicated to the pioneering art of Marcel Duchamp in Punch Lines: Poets Play Duchamp. 

Drawing on the artistic giant of the 20th century’s witty subversion of ‘high art’ and love of wordplay, the poems were performed live at the Gallery as part of Art After Hours, with host David Astle. Poems remained on display in form of museum labels and complied in an exhibition booklet as part of The Essential Duchamp exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Punch Lines: Poets Play Duchamp was presented by Red Room Poetry in partnership with Art Gallery of NSW and held as part of Sydney Writers' Festival in 2019.

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Poets

Poems | Marcel Duchamp with pocket chess set | Marcel Duchamp at the age of 85 | The imagery of chess | Henri-Pierre Roché | The box of 1932 | La septième face du dé – Georges Hugnet | Portrait of chess players 1911 | In the infinitive (The white box) | Marcel Duchamp, in surreal bliss: Spokesperson For Taking The Piss. | The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even (The green box) | Nude descending a staircase 1937 | A linè renamed | ‘going against’ is pleasurable as pleasure | portable museum maintenance hinge | looking augments itself (On Critique by Dave Beech plus Anémic Cinéma) | Please touch (what do you suggest?) or Woman's work is never | Reunion: Marcel Duchamp, John Cage and a 1964 Château Kirwan | what was what before anything was anything | linchpin (this is a portrait of my mouth if I say so) | Hypermodern Summer, 1940: Beckett cheese/Pocket chess | one can look at seeing; one cannot hear hearing | 'Installation View of Exhibition "First Papers of Surrealism"', 1942 | ‘The King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes’, 1912 | 'Marcel Duchamp's Installation "Lazy Hardware," Gotham Book Mart, New York', early 1960s | ‘Ciné-Sketch: Adam and Eve (Marcel Duchamp and Bronia Perlmutter), 1924 | ‘Double-Exposure of Duchamp Smoking a Cigar’, 1968 | ‘Draft Piston (Piston de courant d'air)’ 1914 | 'Le Surréalisme, même, no. 1’, 1956 | ‘Untitled (Left Arm)’, 1959 | 'Church at Blainville', 1902 | 'Bicycle wheel' (replica of 1913 original), 1964 | Marcel Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy | Portrait of Dr. Dumouchel | Portrait no. 29 (Double exposure: full face and profile) | Yvonne and Magdeleine Torn in Tatters | Interior, Arensbergs’ Apartment, New York | A Poster within a Poster | Chocolate grinder (no 1) | From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (Box in a valise) | First papers of surrealism | Rendezvous of Sunday, February 6, 1916 | Rotorelief | The Bride | Dart-Object | Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette | L’Opposition et les Cases Conjugées sont Réconciliées | With Hidden Noise | Fountain | The Bush | Sink Stopper | Marcel Duchamp with Pocket Chess Set