Valerie Hegarty: The Art of Destruction

When we think of art, we are usually thinking of the creation of new ideas. Valerie Hegarty has something else in mind.  Hegarty's work  focuses on the demolition of the old rather than the creation of the new.  She has collected canvases and antiques in fairly good condition and then proceeds to burn, rip, melt, tear, shoot at, and crack them into sorry conditions; creating new pieces that seem to hover on the verge of death.  Hegarty's work makes a violent statement about chaotic state that lies underneath our seemingly civilized world.  Well done.