Portrait of Dr. Dumouchel

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.