Talker: Gustav Metzger

Talker is normally an interview zine about performance by Giles Bailey.

This conversation with Gustav Metzger took place in 2014 as part of a project by Leeds-based visual art organisation Pavilion and focuses on his early years in the UK and formation of his artistic identity. We also discuss how he was shaped by experiences of the natural world and his artistic and political responses to how it is threatened.

Gustav Metzger (1926—2017) was an artist and political activist who developed the concept of Auto-Destructive Art and the Art Strike. Together with John Sharkey, he initiated the Destruction in Art Symposium in 1966.

Giles Bailey is an artist based in London. He works with performance, using texts, video fragments and choreographies to explore how knowledge and meaning are generated through relationships with others. Since 2016 he has published Talker.

Additional issues of Talker have featured Ian White, Kate Valk, Richard Maxwell, Sue Tompkins, Spalding Gray with Kathy Acker, Dora García, Jo Fong, Paul Maheke, Clifford Owens, Barby Asante, Miranda July, and Agus Nur Amal PMTOH.