25. If Duchamp had put the coat rack on the wall in a "correct" orientation, we would have been much more likely to see that the hooks were wrong. Thus, by putting it on the floor, Duchamp increases the odds that it will take longer to discover his perceptual deception. Duchamp likely changed the perspectives of the Hat Rack and coat rack (to hang from the ceiling or nailed on the floor) to fool our eyes into not noticing (and thus "hiding them in plain sight") the incorrect or changed perspectives. "Hidden in plain sight" is a term from cryptology. Duchamp's main collector and friend Walter Arensberg was a cryptology fanatic. Duchamp shared mental and word games of all sorts with Arensberg. |