Marcel Duchamp the infamous conceptual artist made art that was out of everyday objects. Fountain is a piece that Duchamp did in 1917, and it was one of his pieces in the 'readymade' series (or found art). In this particular case Duchamp used a old urinal that he signed 'R. Mutt'...The idea for Fountain came from a discussion between Duchamp and the collector Walter Arensburg and the artist Joseph Stella.
After this conversation, Duchamp went and bought a urinal from a plumbers merchant, signed it and submitted it to an exhibitions for the society of independant artists in New York, which Duchamp and Arensbury were on the board. the rest of the board refused to put this piece in the show, so Duchamp and Arensbury resigned.
An article published at the time, thought to have been written by Duchamp, argued:
“Mr Mutt’s fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bathtub is immoral. It is a fixture that you see every day in plumbers’ shop windows. Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.”
This is what was so interesting that Duchamp did, he took an everyday object and placed it in a position that gave it a new meaning, this was done by simply calling it art and placing it on a plinth, much like Saville did within his 'Accessories to an Artwork' show.
This idea of empowerment is really interesting, because it is empowers the user to decide and select what they think is art, or could be anything in any context and this in turn empowers the object to be thought about in a different way.