What is enchanting about the mundane?

This last weekend while considering ideas for my "Enchanting the Mundane" project, I saw this little guy sitting on my dining room table. What happened next was indeed very exciting. I spent the next two hours bending, twisting, arranging, and otherwise manipulating my collection of water bottles that I dug out of our recycling bin. These are some of the images I managed to capture:

It was as if these water bottles became beings, 

and they had stories to tell.

Earlier this week in my Beat Generation class with Alex Caldiero we had been talking about Dada artists such as Marcel DuChamp and Kurt Schwitters. They were interested in creating art from that which one might not believe to be artistic materials. For example, DuChamp was famous for "readymades"; a piece of which was a signed white urinal which was then displayed and continues to be displayed as a work of art. Schwitters created art entitled Merz Pictures ("merz" coming from the word commerz or commerce that had been stripped of its COMmercialization) that were often made of recycled materials put together in a montage or collage.

To me, their work is the essence of "enchanting the mundane", and it served as a great inspiration for me and my water bottle experience. Here is a short video of an interview with DuChamp. The first part is in Eglish; the second part in French (if you don't speak French, you can stop watching when he starts speaking French). There is a great shot of his famous work: "Fountain" in this video. Also, listen to what he says about finding objects of indifference (starting at 1:15):

I think I got it!

The images above are only a taste of the story told by my water bottles. I shall share the rest of their story in my "Enchanting the Mundane" project: Consumed or it could even be called, Wasted.

~L