YBA stuntman Michael Landy is to turn the South London Gallery into a big old bin for unwanted art.
Art may normally seem to be about creation, but it is in fact often just as much about destruction. Throughout history, all manner of artists have sought to destroy their own work – for all manner of different reasons. Francis Bacon, for example, destroyed many of the paintings he produced prior to 1944. During bouts of depression, Paul Cezanne destroyed works he’d produced during a six-month stay in Paris in 1861. Claude Monet destroyed paintings rather than have them seized by creditors and de Kooning went through a stage of destroying each of his paintings as soon as he’d completed them.
One of the most famous examples in recent years was Michael Landy's 2001 work Break Down, in which the artist Landy meticulously documented every single one of his possessions (including all of his artwork) and then incinerated them. The artist was left with nothing.
Now, this year, Landy is hosting something called Art Bin, a project which sees the South London Gallery turned into a dumping ground for unwanted art. Only work selected by Landy or his representatives will be allowed to enter the bin. As the artist himself says: “Art Bin is about failure, either within particular art work, or more generally in artists’ practice: nobody discards art which has some sort of intrinsic value, so the bin becomes a monument to creative failure”.
A load of old rubbish? Well of course, but quite possibly in a completely fascinating way.
Read Georgia's review of Michael Landy's Art Bin.
If you’re interested in disposing of your work in Landy’s Art Bin, then visit the Art Bin website.
Michael Landy’s Art Bin is at the South London Gallery from 29th January until 14th March 2010.
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