ART, BEAST & SCREEN
DUST
The last words of an email dialogue between Marcel Duchamp and Clifford
P.
Westermeier
discussing art
and
rodeo.
Edited by Rowena
Easton
From: "clifford westermeier"
<cpwestermeier@hotma il.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotma il.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2002 22:44:19 +0000
No wonder you¹re so saddlesore. All that peddling and where did it get
us?
Still tied
to that goddamned plumbing. Our cocks are numb, there's no feeling
left.
I¹m going to tell you a story.
An ordinary Sunday in May. 1937. Doff Aber had just been bucked off his
horse and was on his way back to the chutes, when Pete came out. And
Pete
rode Duster until almost the last second before the signal. Then he lay
trodden in the arena dust, his left leg twisted under his body. He¹d
fell in
such a position that the horse could not avoid trampling him. A bucking
horse will avoid any obstacle in its way by jumping over it. What
unfortunate reason prevented Duster from avoiding Pete is not known,
but the
animal came down with his full weight on the fallen cowboy. Among the
first
to reach Pete¹s side was his closest friend, Harry Knight. Slowly Pete
got
to his feet and Harry asked, ³Are you hurt?²
³You¹re goddamned right I¹m hurt.²
Aided by his friends, he was taken to the waiting ambulance that stands
ready in the
background of every rodeo. Babe, his wife, was among the spectators and
was
unable to reach his side immediately. Prepared for the worst she knew
that
with a crippled leg his rodeo career was over. When she reached the
hospital
she was told that Pete had died on the way.
And the moral is this Marcel - 2 legs good, 4 legs better. 3? No good
to
anyone.
CP
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_duchamp@hotm ail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@h otmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 22:54:41 +0000
You miss the point. I only wanted to watch the thing turn. It wasn¹t
meant
to move (me). It was the scene that needed shifting. I could have tied
the
wheel to the back of a horse - the shit would have been useful - but
the
beast would never have stayed still. Opposing motions. It would have to
be
stuffed.
Besides, those even numbers make me nervous - essentially they are
pathogens. Symmetry leads to aestheticism and a host of other nasties:
Including scrupulosity, ritual, perfectionism, paraphilia(coupling!)
and
increased autonomic activity (the latter of which I have found artists
particularly susceptible to).
Margaret Thatcher, Linda McCartney, Aleister Crowley, Gandhi, John
Lennon,
Eminem, Bela Lugosi, Nietzsche, Christopher Reeve, Jerry Lee Lewis,
Cliff
Richard, Himmler, Alfred Nobel, Evel Knievel, Marie Osmond, Julie
Andrews
and Olivia Newton-John are all Librans. Think about it Cliff.
Marcel
P.S. Maybe the cowboys friends should have let the wife through.
From: "clifford westermeier"
<cpwesterm eier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotm ail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 21:50:16 +0000
Hey Marcel
You can't make art out of shit. (or stools)
CP
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_ducha mp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@hot mail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 23:48:07 +0000
Its more common than you think.
From: "clifford westermeier"
<cpwesterm eier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duch amp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 22:11:53 +0000
I¹m from the West. I know the good from the bad and the downright ugly.
Pageantry, thrills, adventure, a touch of the spectacular is necessary.
Rodeo is AN INTENSELY LIVING DRAMA. The riders of those early rodeos
were
working cowboys, and to that extent the shows were a genuine portrayal
of
the life of the range. But the horseshit was left there, on the range.
I had a horse once called Donny (on account of the teeth), couldn¹t
stop
chomping on his privates. Do animals get OCD?
CP
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_du champ@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@hotmai l.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 22:18:10 +0000
Thats called equine acral lick.
From: "clifford westermeier"
<cpwestermeier@hotma il.com>
To: m_duch amp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 23:28:31 +0000
I thought about that Libran thing. Rodeo has its great personalities
too.
CP
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_d uchamp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@ hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 19:34:42 +0000
Name 1
From: "clifford westermeier"
<cpwestermeier@ hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@ hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 22:38:35 +0000
Burel Mulkey
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_d uchamp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermei er@hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 21:41:50 +0000
He was good. Arse like a scolex.
From: "clifford westermeier" <cpwestermeier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 22:45:30 +0000
One of the best
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_duc hamp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermei er@hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 20:48:46 +0000
Now I¹m going to tell you something.
T.S. Eliot, in his essay on ŒTradition and the Individual Talent,¹
writes:
ŒThe more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will
be
the man who suffers and the mind which creates; the more perfectly will
the
mind digest and transmute the passions which are its material.¹
You¹re too emotional Cliff - I was only teasing.
Marcel
From: "clifford westermeier" <cpw estermeier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp @hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 22:51:49 +0000
Hey, I know those rodeo cowboys don't wear their fancy $100 shirts
everyday.
Like I said; its a show. The greatest on earth. I get emotional about
it.
The bronc riders though, are as cool as they come. Have to be if they
don¹t
want to get killed. Burel Mulkey was a real artist (and don¹t spin me
that
plumbing and bridges line because you never saw him ride you old fake).
And I know a few herdsmen that have written essays on literature that
would
throw into the deepening shade some of the sentimental so-called
aesthetic
sickly nonsense which society calls poetry.
By the way, T.S. Eliot is a Libran too.
CP
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_duch amp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier @hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 21:55:13 +0000
I did see him. What do you think gave me the idea for the wheel? (that
was a
joke so don¹t get on your high horse). It was the New York show of
1913. I
remember because it was where I met Prairie Lilly. Did you know she
lives
here now?
Yes, its all a show. I¹m just as dependent on spectators. Art is also a
blood sport. And I don¹t mean that, like poor old Pete, only the dead
ones
are celebrated. The artist can assert his best intentions (or risk his
life
on a bucking bronc) and insist on the validity of his act, but the
creative
act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work
in
contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its
inner
qualifications and thus adds his contribution. You want drama? Life or
death? Well here it is - APPLAUSE IS FINAL.
Marcel
P.S. Lloyd Webber has much to answer for.
From: "clifford westermeier" <cpwestermeier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2002 20:58:07 +0000
Of course. Its rodeo not cowboys that matter and the audience only get
excited at the prospect of blood. Its a mutual addiction. They go along
and
cheer the skilled and the not so skilled; the cow punchers, bronc
riders,
calf ropers, bulldoggers and steer wrestlers. But you won¹t see them
standing in their seats till there¹s a cowboy with his face in the dust
and
a horn up his fanny - because THATS rodeo. We know thats the arena we
work
in and we all have to take a dive sometimes. Not that we are clowns,
thats
the job of the Wild West performers with their trained animals, novelty
roping and riding acts (and they do draw the crowds). Its just that, as
you
say, being gifted is not the point because you¹ll never have the last
laugh.
Say howdy to Lilly for me
CP
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_duchamp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2002 23:00:52 +0000
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Problem is they¹ll always be
louder and
you can never be sure they¹re laughing at the same joke.
I always thought I was pretty funny.
Marcel
From: "clifford westermeier" <cpwestermeier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 21:03:50 +0000
Yeah, I¹ve always thought of you as a funny guy. I was with you on that
Rembrandt ironing board joke.
CP
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_duchamp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 23:08:05 +0000
That was art
From: "clifford westermeier" <cpwestermeier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 22:11:49 +0000
It was a good one anyway. Some of the old hands had a chuckle. They
know who
Rembrandt is, just as refined and fine feeling as those who turn up to
the
rodeo now - in their Pullman cars, with Oscar Wilde (Libran), aesthetic
manner, accompanied with Patchoulli, Essence de Millefleures, laptop
computers and seal skin sacques.
CP
P.S. That was a joke.
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_duchamp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 19:14:38 +0000
I¹ve been laughing long and hard.
From: "clifford westermeier" <cpwestermeier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 23:18:18 +0000
Fuck you
From: "marcel duchamp" <m_duchamp@hotmail.com>
To: cpwestermeier@hotmail.com
Subject: buckcannon
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 20:21:53 +0000
No, fuck you cowboy
From: "clifford westermeier" <cpwestermeier@hotmail.com>
To: m_duchamp@hotmail.com
Subject: anthonyhancock
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 23:24:23 +0000
artist
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