Bringing in the trash: the cultural ecology of Dada

Commonly misconstrued as a nihilist gesture of defiance and a protest against the self-destructive paroxysm of the First World War, Dada has continuing relevance now as we approach its centenary in 2016. What’s relevant is the cultural ecology central to the art of Kurt Schwitters, Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber, Hannah Höch and Max Ernst in particular. These artists largely abstained from the inherited materials and practices of the high art tradition, working instead with the readily available flotsam of industrial civilisation and, in the case of Schwitters, literally bringing trash from the streets into the artwork. I consider the ethics of practices that make do with existing material, repurposing and recycling as a strategic means of breaking the stranglehold of ‘originality’ and uniqueness that continues to offer misleading models of human agency.