Marcel Zhama

Marcel Zhama was featured in a gallery that we checked out in the Chelsea District.  One of his most interesting works was a sculptural piece referencing Marcel Duchamp's "Étant Donnés."  In the original, a large wooden door hid a nature scene with a naked figure, viewed through one of two peepholes in the door ( right).  It was thought that this piece (which was his last) was Duchamp's response to the deconstruction of images, and was considered less of a sculpture and more so a painting.  In this 'painting without a picture plane,' the objects are placed not on a two-dimensional plane as would be traditional, but placed in a three-dimensional context.  This context can only be viewed through a peephole, making the viewer's perspective the only definite condition of the piece.  Marcel Zhama recreated a similar context for his piece, with a large wooden door, a peephole, and behind it a scene of two naked figures lying on a hill, with a natural landscape that extends past a fox who gazes on.  The idea with the fox is that he was responsible for knocking out the two people.  The strongest part of this piece for me was the non-traditional role that the viewer plays.  One is made to feel like they are almost spying in on this scene, reminded of the subjectivity of their own perspective.  Also the unexpected nature of being confronted by a person's genitals in the piece can make the viewer uneasy (possibly).  This is a challenge to the ideas of what art, or more specifically a painting is.