Duchamp used a piece of glass as a palette – red, blue, green,
yellow – the same seen from either side.
The past and future look pretty much the same from here. We
have a saying: What goes around comes around. Any way you hold
the palette of time, you can look clear through it and see what’s
in your hand.
Duchamp also had this thing about ‘breaking even’. He applied
it, first and foremost, to economics, believing that one should
earn about as much money as one needs to live.
Breaking even is more than just a Duchampian approach to
economics. It reflects life itself: You’re born, you die. Even
Steven. No getting around it. The accumulation of capital
cannot help you avoid eventual bankruptcy. Even the sun will
burn out someday. Maybe the universe is half light and half
dark, although the astronomers will tell you it’s a lot darker
than that. But they haven’t been everywhere, like inside
Duchamp’s head, where a palette of glass shimmers, floating in
the air, its yellow green blue red visible both ways.