Two Identical Scarves from H&M, extracted Threads #1

2011

Readymade fabric (H&M scarves), extracted threads of four colours

250 x 300 cm (fabric 182 x 72 cm each)

Exhibited at

2011 Prism Lag, Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum, Kyoto, Japan

2012 The New Contemporaries, @KCUA Gallery, Kyoto Art University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan

Two Identical Scarves from H&M, extracted Threads #1

The materials of this work are two identical scarves from the fast-fashion brand H&M. This work was inspired by the concept of “Infra-mince*” written by Marcel Duchamp. In the note of Infra-mince No. 35, he mentions that “There is a crude conception of the déjà vu that leads from a generic grouping (two trees, two boats) to the most identical ‘castings’. It would be better to try to go into the infra-thin interval that separates two ‘identicals’ than to conveniently accept the verbal generalisation that makes two twins look like two drops of water”. This sentence inspired me, and I made the work in homage to it.
*Infra-mince is a coined word by Marcel Duchamp in French and means ultra-tiny or ultra-thin. When asked for a conceptual definition of the term “Infra-mince”, Marcel Duchamp replied that the notion is impossible to define, “one can only give examples of it; the warmth of a seat (which has just/been left) is infra-mince or the difference in displaced volume between a clean shirt and the same shirt worn once.”

Photo by

Takeru Koroda

This work was exhibited at