Solvent form: Art and destruction

by Jared Pappas-Kelley

This book is about the destruction of art, both in terms of objects that have been destroyed – lost in fires, floods or vandalism – and the general concept of art operating through object and form. Through re-examinations of such events as the Momart warehouse fire in 2004 and the activities of art thief Stéphane Breitwieser, the book proposes an idea of solvent form hinging on the dual meaning in the words solvent and solvency, whereby art, while attempting to make secure or fixed, simultaneously undoes and destroys through its inception. Ultimately, the book questions what is it that may be perceived in the destruction of art and how we understand it, and further how it might be linked to a more general failure.

160 pages, Hardcover

Published December 14, 2018

Reviews

[Chris Kelso · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-executed, if rather dense, thesis on the shifting dimensions of a singular creative form. Pappas-Kelley handles the lofty concept of art transitioning through object and form (usually via natural destruction, deliberate deconstruction, or some new collective projection) with a surgical, academic eye, but the prose is alive and in constant evolution. It brings the passion of the project to life, and this is always Pappas-Kelley's key strength - the writing. And the writer is just as intrigued by rumor and lost objects as he is by physical forms there for interpretation. It's in this ephemera that the book achieves a more transcendent purpose, emotionally and theoretically, and locates its crucial central premise with the question - how do we process collapse and intangibility in a complex material environment?