Inframince is a concept Marcel Duchamp created that describes perceived nuance in the world. The original notes on inframince, now kept in the Cabinet d’Art Graphique archive at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, were written by Duchamp, in French over time, between 1912 and his death in 1968, on 46 mainly undated scraps of paper.

Sometimes translated as 'infra-thin,' inframince connotes a barely perceptible thinness; in his introduction to the original publication, Paul Matisse called inframince the 'very last lastness of things… [the] frail and final minimum before reality disappears' (1980 xv). Duchamp implied that inframince cannot be defined — ‘one doesn’t dare but give examples,’ he said (Denis de Rougement diary)’ — and each note in his collection describes inframince phenomena: for instance, the warmth of a seat just left is inframince, as is the whistling sound made by walking in velvet trousers, two objects cast from the same mould, or reflection from mirror or glass (Matisse, 1980 notes 4, 9 verso, 35 recto, 9 recto respectively; all translations mine).

Inframince Notes Wall Map, Rebecca Loewen, 2016; Duchamp's original notes

A Propos of Baltimore ‘63: Slide Tape, Rebecca Loewen, 2024

On February 10, 1963, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Marcel Duchamp, 75 years old, gave a lecture about his life’s work entitled A Propos of Myself for which he showed a series of 30 some slides depicting his work chronologically. A Propos of Baltimore '63 transposes Duchamp's slideshow lecture into a material present, re-enacting the discussion period that followed Duchamp’s lecture. This new work expands the compressed archival record of this lecture into a situated three-dimensional space by re-projecting the audio tape, diapositive slides, and paper script into the current moment.

2 Sides of the Same Wall, Rebecca Loewen, 2017, Video, Duration 8' - 15"

2 Sides of the Same Wall describes in detail what is seen on one side of a wall while the camera captures the other side.

Voiceover by Aymie Landers

Parallel Translations of Duchamp's Notes on Inframince, Rebecca Loewen, 2015; excerpt; translations by Paul Matisse, Janelle Tougas, Anne Kawala and Rebecca Loewen. Matisse translation from Marcel Duchamp, Notes, ed. by Paul Matisse (Paris: Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, 1980)

3 Slide Shows, Rebecca Loewen, 2017, Video, Duration 4' - 22"

3 Slide Shows closely follows an architectural subject through documentary description. Text read aloud accompanies an analogue slideshow of various architectural subjects. In the performance of the show (projection and reading) spaces are explored between transparency and opacity, image and text, 2D and 3D. The impossibility of an impartial perspective generates a space between the subject and its description within which overlays, fictions or inhabitations may occur.

Cheek-Vase-Wall, Rebecca Loewen, 2013, Colour Super 8 Digitally Transferred, Duration 1' - 43"

A woman suddenly finds her cheek right up next to a vase right up next to a wall.

Proprioception Tests, Koenigstrasse, Rebecca Loewen, 2013