Man Ray’s Indestructible Object is a classic example of one of the types of DADA art forms, known as readymades. It is quite easy to tell that this is readymade, as it looks like someone just put a picture of an eye on a metronome. This does go along with the idea of the DADA manifesto in the idea that “Every pictorial or plastic work is unnecessary…”, as these pieces would be displayed, only for them to be later destroyed by the person who created them. It is just a piece of art–it has no meaning, therefore has no value, and can be destroyed without any consequences or lingering emotional attachment. However, creating these things suggests that the art does matter, or has some meaning–if people were saying that art is meaningless, they wouldn’t even create the art in the first place, because that is how meaningless it would be. Creating art that doesn’t have a meaning still suggests that the art has a meaning–the idea that art has no meaning. It is this endless circle of contradiction.

Still, it is understandable what the movement is trying to aim for. I see it as a statement of focusing less on the ideal, and more on reality. Perhaps they are full of disillusionment in the world, and wanted people to fix the world around them. But then again, that could just be me not understanding the complex yet simple concept of Dadaism, something that to this day people still do not understand.