This assemblage, consisting of a sewing machine wrapped in a blanket and tightly bound with string, was inspired by a famous passage from Les Chants de Maldoror (The Songs of Maldoror) by the French writer Isidore Ducasse, better known as the Comte de Lautréamont: “beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella.” This striking image was highly praised among the Surrealists, with whom Man Ray was closely associated. It was often interpreted as a sexual metaphor, in which the umbrella represented the male, the sewing machine the female, and the dissecting table a bed.
Yet because the object is entirely concealed, it is impossible to verify whether the wrapped form actually contains a sewing machine. Throughout his career, Man Ray transformed familiar objects into unfamiliar ones by altering them or combining them with unexpected elements. In this work, he achieves a similar transformation through the simple act of wrapping, creating a mysterious and enigmatic presence.
A photograph of the original version of this object appeared on the cover of the first issue of the Surrealist journal La Révolution surréaliste (1924). The image also belongs to Man Ray’s First Steps series, which includes Coat Stand, his first nude photograph. The museum holds an example from this series in its collection.