Michael Landy: Break Down Inventory

by Michael Landy (artist)

Famous for destroying everything he owned, this first major monograph of Michael Landy’s work surveys both his large-scale installations and lesser-known sculpture to illustrate the artist’s joyful inventiveness.

Richly illustrated in full colour, this book surveys his earliest work, including lesser-known sculptures – such as Sovereign shown at Freeze in 1988 – to large-scale installations Market, Closing Down Sale and Scrapheap Services.

Other works discussed in detail include the infamous Break Down, where Landy destroyed all 7,227 of his possessions in a department store on Oxford Street, London; Semi-detached, where Landy constructed a full-scale model of his family home at Tate Britain, London; and the project H2NY where Landy made 168 drawings based on a Jean Tinguely sculpture.

With over 800 colour illustrations and four newly commissioned texts, this volume provides a comprehensive insight into Landy's work.

126 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2001

About the author

Michael Landy RA (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation Break Down (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the Art Bin project (2010) at the South London Gallery. On 29 May 2008, Landy was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Reviews

[Meli Varley]

a discovery about consumerism

[Uticastreet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it!