Portrait of Dr. Dumouchel
By Alex Gallagher
Luminous skeletal
transfer your transparence
Won’t you rip open that ribcage and show
what glows in between the opaque and unseen
all those cavities and cartilage; to see clearly each rupture
what kind of light shines through the gaps in your humanity
Like some arcane apparition the body emerges, hysteric
from how bright we burn when we pierce through the retina
In response to Marcel Duchamp's 'Portrait of Dr Dumouche' 1910.
See the artwork that inspired this poem in the flesh, along with more than 100 of Marcel Duchamp’s world-renowned pieces in ‘The Essential Duchamp’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 27 April – 11 August 2019.