Destruction Rites

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. Destruction Rites is the first book to explore the ephemeral visual culture of the postwar era. It examines children's games based on warfare; playgrounds situated in bomb sites; the rise of garage sales where goods designed for obsolescence and destined for the garbage heap are reclaimed and repurposed by local communities; and anarchist politics in relation to the art of the period, created by Jean Tinguely; Yoko Ono; and Vito Acconci among others. It argues that destruction was reclaimed as a constructive force, within both the public sphere and the art museum. Drawing on the writings of Michel de Certeau, Arjun Appadurai and theories of play, Mona Hadler plots the life of objects as they switch owners, perform gender roles, facilitate play, and are subject to rites of destruction. She reveals how the great destructive acts of the era were subversively transformed by small, ephemeral acts in the everyday.