Variations on The Large Glass's Chocolate Grinder

By Mark Jones

The following animations are based on Marcel Duchamp’s paintings Chocolate Grinder, No. 1, 1913 and Chocolate Grinder, No. 2, 1914, both at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Duchamp based these images on a machine he saw in a confectionary shop (Gamelin's) in Rouen. These images are significant to Duchamp’s oeuvre because they prefigure the Large Glass (his most renowned work) through clarity of drawing, observance of perspective and the incorporation of mechanism and rotation.

Click image for video (QT 0.5MB) 1st Animation - Copyright 1999 Stuart Smith/Mark Jones

Click image for video (QT 0.5MB) 2nd Animation - Copyright 1999 Julian Baum/Mark Jones]

I have been analyzing Duchamp’s manipulation of perspective as a research topic for an MPhil/PHD at Manchester Metropolitan University. This research has involved visiting chocolate manufacturers to see similar machines working and correspondence with a number of eminent Duchamp scholars. My aim is to clarify whether Duchamp has, as he claimed, reinvented perspective in the 20th century.

The research involves practical creative work, producing measured perspectives, 3D models and computer animations in conjunction with Ian Marland at British Aerospace, Chadderton, UK.

The animation in red and white checker board is one of six produced by Stuart Smith that is speculating on the motion of the grinder. The other animation, created by Julian Baum, is a simulation of the grinder based on Duchamp’s notes in the Green book.

The team involved includes

Mark Jones - Research and model making

Frazer Gregory - Multimedia

Stuart Smith - Animations

Julian Baum - Animations

Anneliese Cheadle - PR

Ian Marland - AutoCAD

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