The expanded 2014 artifact of the HedgeCones corpus: longer yellow traffic cones extend a complete HedgeCone core while both work identities remain operative within Deutilization.
HedgeCone Rad is the expanded artifact of the HedgeCones corpus within Deutilization. First realized in 2014, it adds new 42-inch yellow stacker cones to a complete HedgeCone construction. The earlier work remains its structural core and retains its own artifact identity.
The documented core comprises thirty new 18-inch red-orange traffic cones, sixty toilet-seat bolt-and-nut fasteners, and an exercise ball, organized through a small rhombicosidodecahedral arrangement. Longer yellow cones extend the construction outward. The added cone count and overall assembled dimensions have not been verified.
Rad changes the relation between component, core, and encompassing form. The shorter red-orange cones remain visible among the longer yellow projections. Existing manufactured capacities participate in a new spatial arrangement while the cones depart from their prescribed street service. Deutilization concerns that interrupted assignment; support, joining, visibility, and other physical capacities remain active.
A complete authentic HedgeCone incarnation is required within every authentic HedgeCone Rad. In the conjoined construction, the same physical core participates in both work identities. Removing the Rad additions can return HedgeCone to independent presentation while leaving the Rad incarnation disassembled or inactive. Relocation alone does not establish a new incarnation.
Contemporary records document the expanded work at FIGMENT Boston on and around the Rose Kennedy Greenway in July 2014. A later post records its presentation at the Lawn on D in July 2015. A March 2016 post records acceptance to Wide Open 7. HedgeCone’s earlier COOL exhibition award and April 2014 TEDx Somerville appearance belong to the original work’s history, distinct from Rad’s documented participation in TEDxSomerville in 2015.
HedgeCone Rad was displayed in the lobby of Cohen Auditorium at Tufts University’s Aidekman Arts Center for TEDxSomerville’s REINVENT event on September 27, 2015. The winged incarnation of MeconoMorph participated in the same event and was presented onstage inside the auditorium. The two works occupied separate presentation spaces.
The installation photograph records both works together in the lobby during setup, with MeconoMorph components awaiting assembly. It documents an installation phase rather than a shared final display. The completed lobby photograph shows Rad beneath the Cohen Auditorium sign; Genel’s firsthand account identifies the separate stage placement of MeconoMorph.
Patrick McDonagh’s contemporary report, “TEDxSomerville Reinvent,” The Somerville Times, October 7, 2015, pp. 1 and 12, independently documents the September 27 event at Tufts, MeconoMorph’s stage presentation, and Genel’s discussion of Deutilization. Its photograph shows Genel with TEDx organizer Devin Bramhall in front of the winged MeconoMorph. The newspaper provides event and practice context; the supplied photographs document Rad’s lobby placement and the installation process. Further contemporary documentation appears in the artist’s TEDxSomerville account.
The critical commentary relates Rad to the Theory essay Deutilization and the Duchamp Legacy. Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel and Fountain provide overlapping precedents for interrupted service and retained capacities. Rad extends the inquiry by preserving an already-deutilized artwork within another artifact. Rules protecting that identity need not prescribe a single interpretation.
Authorized realization and authenticity terms distinguish the work from an unrestricted recipe. Reconstruction and material changes require artist authorization. Acquisition of a physical incarnation does not transfer the concept or a general reproduction right. Current location, condition, acquisition status, and overall measurements require separate verification.
Documentation: HedgeCone Rad project record; July 2014 expansion record; photographic archive; Lawn on D record; Deutilization and the Duchamp Legacy.
