Nevermades

“Nevermades” are a conceptual evolution of Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades,” pushing the boundaries of authenticity and creation even further into the digital realm. While Duchamp recontextualized everyday objects as art by simply selecting them, nevermades are works that were never physically created at all. These virtual fabrications exist purely as digital constructs, challenging the traditional notions of art’s materiality and the value placed on physical objects. In the spirit of Duchamp’s radical rethinking of what constitutes art, nevermades extend this challenge into the hyperreal world of AI and virtual spaces, where the line between what is real and what is imagined is blurred.

A neo-Dada or Dada revivalist approach underpins the nevermades concept, embracing absurdity, irony, and a critique of established artistic hierarchies. Just as Dadaists questioned the seriousness of the art world and the meaning of art itself, nevermades reflect a similar skepticism in today’s digital-first environment. By creating entirely fictional works and exhibitions, artists of this movement expose the fragility of art’s status symbols—galleries, objects, and authenticity—highlighting how easily they can be fabricated or stripped of meaning in the digital age.

—ChatGPT