Free Download Mona Hadler, "Destruction Rites: Ephemerality and Demolition in Postwar Visual Culture"
English | 2017 | ISBN: 1784533408, 1350428973 | PDF | pages: 274 | 20.6 mb
In the early sixties, crowds gathered to watch rites of destruction – from the demolition derby where makeshift cars crashed into each other for sport, to concerts where musicians destroyed their instruments, to performances of self-destructing machines staged by contemporary artists. Destruction, in both its playful and fearsome aspects, was ubiquitous in the new Atomic Age. This complicated subjectivity was not just a way for people to find catharsis amid the fears of annihilation and postwar trauma, but also a complex instantiation of ideological crisis-in a time with some seriously conflicted political myths.Destruction Rites explores the ephemeral visual culture of destruction in the postwar era and its links to contemporary art. It examines the demolition derby; games and toys based on warfare; playgrounds situated in bomb sites; and the rise of garage sales, where goods designed for obsolescence and destined for the garbage heap are reclaimed and repurposed by local communities.
