Solvent form

Abstract

Chapter three examines the notion of solvent form in more detail, in which art—while attempting to make secure or fixed—simultaneously undoes and destroys through its inception. This is examined through narratives such as Sarah Winchester obsessively building the Winchester Mansion in San Jose, California, or similarly as an object that Scheherazade attempts to hew with her stories in One Thousand and One Nights—seen here as a method for forestalling a verdict and extending her moments against foreclosure, maintaining their permeability. Within this context, works such as Jeremy Blake’s Winchester Trilogy, Urs Fischer’s untitled melting wax sculptures from the Venice Biennale, Louise Bourgeois’s Couple II, examples from contemporary art, and ideas from Agnes Martin’s writings are applied in order to understand these solvent operations within art.