‘Pirate Wheel’ at Hotel Volkshaus, Basel

We’re delighted that the hotel are continuing to display the sculpture, a humorous appropriation of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Bicycle Wheel’ (1913), through the autumn and early winter.

Comprising of an upturned bike wheel attached to a wooden stool, Duchamp’s sculpture is credited as the first assisted readymade. The spiralling wheel an essential feature of the original work, references Duchamp’s interest in pataphysics. In reconstructing the artwork and casting it in bronze, Flanagan creates an objective copy. He then transforms the work into a stand for a hare, sculpted in his own hand, evident through the indexical mark of his thumbprint.