''Taking on Art History''

“Even the Ghost of the Past,”  Marcel Dzama’s elaborate show of drawings, sketchbook pages, sculpture, dioramas and video with live music accompaniment,(specifically his hole in the brick wall  piece entitled Even the Ghost of the Past) seems to “take on” art history.

 

You see a direct relation in Duchamps Étant donnés. It positions the viewer as a peeping tom; only one person at a time can view the diorama. The viewer is confronted with a mannequin of a woman’s body splayed across overgrown grass. The body seems lifeless but it holds up a gas light in the center of the tableau, illuminating an idyllic landscape, replete with Renaissance imagery.