ABSTRACT
The visual understanding implied by glass is challenged by a material that can be seen yet challenges vision: dust. Normally overlooked, it is as prevalent as glass in the Large Glass and the Maison de Verre. Its presence serves as a metaphor for the body, occupation of the building, and their history. Dust is the opposite thing to Waste, or at least, the opposite principle to Waste. It is about circularity, the impossibility of things disappearing, or going away or being gone. The dust was gathered to a specific thickness, texture and quality. The result was recorded in Man Ray's 1920 photograph Élevage de poussière. The upper female part of the Large Glass was left propped up in Duchamp's studio looking askance at the lower part breeding. A painted lady, she was imprisoned behind the glass, recalling Louis Aragon's description of a surprised prostitute seen moving about just behind the windowpane of the arcade.
