A CHEEKY TALE

A Cheeky Tale takes its cues from Marcel Duchamp’s assisted readymade L.H.O.O.Q. By the early 20th century, Leonardo DaVinci’s painting Mona Lisa had become a mass reproduced tourist icon. In 1919, Duchamp altered a commercial reproduction of the painting by adding a moustache and the letters L.H.O.O.Q. When pronounced in French, the letters sound like "Elle a chaud au cul" (she is hot in the arse). It is also close to "avoir chaud au cul", which Duchamp loosely translated to “there is fire below.” It is said that Duchamp, among other things, rescued DaVinci’s masterpiece from the banality of reproduction.

Fast forward 100 years and it is Duchamp’s works that have become mass reproduced and banal pop culture images. A Cheeky Tale starts with postcard reproductions of Duchamp’s work. Beneath each adds Duchampian letters that, when pronounced, create suggestive puns and sexual euphemisms similar to L.H.O.O.Q. There are four stanzas, each with six postcard reproductions and letters, with repeats and variations, and ending where A Cheeky Tale began, with Duchamp’s pun, but accompanying a different and equally fitting work.