Fountain
Bitcoin mining rig
Referencing Marcel Duchamp's 1917 landmark work titled Fountain, this sculpture contrasts Duchamp's removal of functionality from a common urinal and its subsequent transformation into a "readymade" work of art by combining disparate elements for the express purpose of imbuing them with a functionality that acts as the integral and activating medium for the sculpture. In both works form is dictated by functionality.
As Duchamp's Fountain was originally meant to handle the flow of water and urine this Fountain was created to handle the flow of data and money. The advent of industrialized production of plumbing and the installation of public urinals in Paris in the 1880s signaled a paradigm shift that is echoed in the contemporary installation of copper wiring, computer processors and wi-fi today.
The internal architecture of Fountain symbolizes the increasing importance of computer processors and connectivity to modern life and draws a metaphorical comparison between today's always on stream of data and the flow of water in a fountain.