ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what happens when the “battle” is a process that is actively encouraged and embraced. Both Philip Guston and Eduardo Paolozzi emphasise destruction as a vital creative force within their studio methods. Furthermore, Guston articulates “the contest” as the most engaging quality of a creative process. The chapter utilises the notion of contest as a way to explore Guston and Paolozzi’s studio methods as game playing. It examines significant connections between Paolozzi’s 1950s sculptures—formed with junk and bombsite debris—and the discourse surrounding post-war junk playgrounds established on bombsites and waste ground. Made from junk and bombsite debris, Paolozzi’s sculpture places the process-led artwork firmly within the material and social conditions of its time. The “creative battle” emerges as a contest with the unforeseen that produces a responsive process.
