Joseph DeLappe

Man Ray's Mouse

2025

Description: An Apple Bluetooth mouse forms the starting material for this sculpture: smooth, white, and, at first glance, entirely familiar. Sharp carpet tacks are attached to its surface in regular rows, making any touch impossible. The title »Man Ray’s Mouse« refers to a well-known work from art history: Man Ray’s »Le Cadeau« (1921). This work consists of an iron whose underside Man Ray fitted with a row of nails. What Man Ray did with a household object of the early twentieth century, DeLappe transfers to an object of the digital present: since the late 1990s, the artist has been working with computer mice, game controllers, and related input devices as sculptural material. These everyday objects are familiar interfaces between body and machine. By altering them and depriving them of their function, DeLappe makes them lose their self-evidence and directs attention to our relationship with technical tools.

AIR