VOUS M’ (2018)

SCULPTURE, INSTALLATION

Vous m’

(Installation view)

Plaster, cardboard, tripod, base, inkjet print, etching

2018

Projector

Plaster, cardboard

50x45x15

2018

"Vous m'" is my tribute to Marcel Duchamp’s "Tu m’", a painting that has fascinated me for years. Duchamp’s work was always challenging the boundaries of what art could be, and with "Tu m’", he created this enigmatic farewell to painting, blending shadows, objects, and references to his own ready-mades. It’s not just a painting; it’s a statement about vision, perception, and incompleteness. I wanted to bring that same energy into a contemporary space, but with a twist that speaks to our modern era.

In this installation, I’ve taken cues from Duchamp’s original work, but instead of staying within the realm of painting, I’ve pushed it into the three-dimensional and digital worlds. That object you see, resting on the tripod, is a central piece—a kind of homage to tools of vision, to cameras, projectors, and other devices that mediate how we see the world today. It’s made in plaster, almost abstracted, because I’m interested in how the act of "viewing" has shifted over time. Duchamp was fascinated with how we see and what we see, so I wanted to reference that by creating something that feels both familiar and alien at the same time.

The title, "vous m’", is a direct nod to "Tu m’", but instead of being a personal, intimate phrase between two people, mine is more formal. I wanted the viewer to feel implicated—"you" are in this too. There’s an interaction happening, a conversation between the viewer, the object, and the space. Like Duchamp’s piece, I leave gaps for you to fill in. The projector is there, but what’s it projecting?

I’ve kept the space minimal, clean, with deliberate placements of objects and shapes. The whitewashed, almost clinical or figorific aesthetic is intentional, it echoes the neutrality of Duchamp’s ready-mades, but also evokes a sense of incompletion. There’s this idea of absence and potential, just like the unfinished part of "Tu m’".

The "HD Ready" etching on the wall might seem like a humorous nod to technology, but it’s more than that. It’s about how we’re always preparing for the next upgrade, the next step in visual clarity, always ready for more definition but never quite reaching a final point. It’s an echo of Duchamp’s idea of art as an open-ended process. We’re never done; we’re always in the process of seeing, interpreting, understanding. In a way, this installation is also an exploration of how far we’ve come since Duchamp’s time—and yet how much we’re still grappling with the same fundamental questions of art and vision.

So, this is "vous m’"—my personal dialogue with Duchamp, a continuation of that unfinished conversation he started with "Tu m’", but now updated for a new time and a new audience. It’s incomplete, yes, but that’s the point.