A 19-year fixation with another artist’s work caused Michael Landy to destroy all his possessions, he admits to Laura Davis

THE 7,226 worldly goods that Michael Landy smashed, burned and melted in the name of art included several odd socks, David Bowie singles and his Saab 900 car.

Afterwards, he was left with nothing at all, save the clothes he stood up in and a cat named Rats.

Landy’s act of destruction, which took two weeks to complete, was the result of a 19-year fixation with the work of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely.

His response to this larger than life character and his mischevious inventions is explored in a new exhibition opening at Tate Liverpool today.

It includes a few remaining fragments of Tinguely’s most extreme work – a machine created to destroy itself.

Homage to New York was set to commit suicide in the garden of the US city’s Museum of Modern Art in 1960. It failed.

“Tinguely wasn’t a very good engineer,” explains Landy, 46.

“Part of it was a suicide carriage would drown itself but it didn’t reach the pond.

“In fact most of the things that he said would happen didn’t. He was supposed to have these stinks that which would fall down on to the floor and give off a horrible smell, but they didn’t work.”

The piano that was engineered to play 10 notes before setting itself on fire only managed three before a bucket of gasoline poured over it and cuased flames to engulf the installation.

Eventually, the New York fire brigade arrived to extinguish the flames.

Tinguely didn’t mind.