Bicycle Wheel Sculpture by Marcel Duchamp, Paris 1913
This readymade described by Duchamp as a “pleasant gadget,” combined a stool with a wheel, which was intermittently turned so that it would revolve for viewers. Duchamp called this an “assisted readymade” since it was based on the combination of two different objects.
The arrangement of the two objects is visually striking and even comical as it invites the viewer to spin the wheel themselves. The artwork fuses together two different useful objects while rendering them both stripped of their original function. We can no longer ride the bike or sit on the stool so the objects are totally reimagined. Instead, they become objects for us to contemplate, look at, and treat as we would anything else in a gallery space. By juxtaposing two different objects, Duchamp creates a new thing, which is neither one nor the other.
