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.”
Two Identical Scarves from H&M, extracted Threads #4
2013
Readymade fabric (H&M scarves), extracted threads of four colours
250 x 300 cm (fabric 182 x 72 cm each)
Exhibited at
2013 The Empire of Folds: Fashion and Textile Art from Japan, Museum Bellerive, Ein Haus des Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, Switzerland
2014 Japanische Gegenwartskunst und Textil, Mikiko Sato Gallery, Hamburg
2014 Thin Membrane, Pictures Come Down, Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany
Roland Baege, Dortmund