Thomas Chimes, Multiplax

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chimes made metal box constructions. Some have working gears and kinetic elements. Others are overtly erotic. Many include obscure or coded language. Multiplax includes a small, red electric light and a direct reference to the artist who inspired Chimes most greatly: Marcel Duchamp. Chimes writes, “eros champ, du”, which suggests a passionate love—eros—for the great conceptual artist. Like Duchamp’s famous The Large Glass in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the box has an upper and lower register. Diagrams of a shaft-like “trough” and other shapes suggest a realm of bio-mechanical interaction.