Found Art, or Found Object Art, is art which is made from found objects which, although often combined or otherwise modified, originally had a non-art function. One of the earliest well known examples of this is “Fountain*” by Marcel Duchamp (1917). Here Duchamp placed a porcelain urinal upon its back on a pedestal and signed it “R. Mutt 1917.” This Duchamp referred to as a Readymade Sculpture. Assemblage, another form of Found Art, is like a three-dimensional collage by which found objects are arranged in a relationship to one another, usually upon a defined substrate such as a picture frame or box, as opposed to a free-standing sculpture made from found objects.
Left Art may or may not be made with found objects. Left Art is Art which is placed in a surrounding outside of the standard locations for art, such as in galleries, on walls or pedestals or commissioned for commons. It is art which is literally left somewhere to be discovered. Left Art usually stands out as such by being at odds with its surroundings, creating a dialog between the piece and its found environment, such as a framed print of “Tom Watching Dragonflies” by Mike Smith which was left hanging on a fence beside a creek beneath an overpass,
or “Dinner for Two” (with two being pronounced twəʊ), consisting of a pair of plates (one large and one small) with silverware, a plastic cup and a coffee mug all placed upon the cement base of a…
