Half an Hour, as Planned — Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

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TEE-ART-RB-TIN-01-M-BK T-Shirt

Piece

Half an Hour, as Planned Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

$ 2,345.00

Description

On 17 March 1960, in the MoMA garden, Homage to New York was meant to destroy itself in half an hour; it caught fire early and the fire brigade had to step in. The print is the machine with the part that was not planned.

A Author

Jean Tinguely

B Subject

Machines

C Aesthetic

Diagram · Typographic

Exploration

Tinguely assembled in the Museum of Modern Art garden an eight-metre machine made of old bicycles, a piano, pram wheels, a fan and a motor. It was designed for a single purpose: to destroy itself in half an hour in front of an audience.

It did not go as planned. One element caught fire early, the piano genuinely burned and the New York fire brigade had to come in and put it out, which the author tried to prevent.

That is what is interesting about the case, not the idea. A machine designed to fail in a particular way failed in another, which means it failed at failing and therefore worked more than it was asked to.

There are photographs, a short documentary and some fragments picked up off the ground that are now in collections, which is exactly what the work meant to avoid.

It lasted twenty-seven minutes. The museum had announced it as a homage to the city.

Details