Gustav Metzger: Auto-Destructive Art Manifesto (1959)

 

-Auto-destructive art is primarily a form of public art for industrial societies.

-Self-destructive painting, sculpture and construction is a total unity of idea, site, form, colour, method, and timing of the disintegrative process.

-Auto-destructive art can be created with natural forces, traditional art techniques and technological techniques.

-The amplified sound of the auto-destructive process can be an element of the total conception.

-The artist may collaborate with scientists, engineers.

-Self-destructive art can be machine produced and factory assembled.

-Auto-destructive paintings, sculptures and constructions have a life time varying from a few moments to twenty years. When the disintegrative process is complete the work is to be removed from the site and scrapped.  

 

I am interested in auto-destructive art and the works of artists like Metzger but also Stephen Cripps (image). I am particularly excited by the use of the temporal and the volatile in their work and the unknown direction at which the art could take. It has been an influence in my works for LOW FOCUS especially.