Solvent Form

Solvent form is about the destruction of art. It examines objects that have been destroyed--lost in fires, floods, or acts of vandalism--but also those that actively court or represent destruction. More generally, it investigates the concept of art operating through object and form.

The book draws on a wide variety of sources, from the theoretical work of Baudrillard, Agamben and Bataille to the novels of Perec and Tom McCarthy. It also looks at events such as the Momart warehouse fire of 2004, in which large holdings of YBA and other high profile collections were destroyed, and the activities of art thief Stphane Breitwieser, whose mother destroyed the works he had stolen upon his arrest. From this rich array of materials it assembles an idea of 'solvent form', whereby art, while attempting to make secure or fixed, simultaneously undoes and destroys through its inception. Going further, the book asks what it is that can be perceived through the destruction of art, and how this might be linked to a more general failure.

A bold and highly original study, Solvent form will be stimulating reading for students of art history and theory. It can also serve as a textbook for understanding how art functions as something perpetually in transit and never fixed.