NO SHOW MUSEUM

Untitled (Acid action painting), 1961.

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Acid action painting, duration: 20 minutes, first performed on July 3, 1961, in South Bank, London.

Material: Hydrochloric acid on three layers of nylon, metal.

Dimensions: Height: 2.1 m, length 3.8 m, depth 1.8 m.

Technology: 3 nylon canvases in white, red, and blue were arranged one behind the other. Acid, which decomposes within 15 seconds after contact, was painted, spun, and sprayed onto the nylon.

Years Without Art, 1977-1980.

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In 1974, Gustav Metzger was invited to participate in the exhibition Art into Society—Society into Art in the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London – he refused to exhibit anything. Instead, he contributed a calling in the accompanying catalog for "Years Without Art 1977–1980." The three-year "art strike" was aimed at securing the potential of politically engaged art against its trivialization and commercialization by the art market: "The refusal to labour is the chief weapon of workers fighting the system; artists can use the same weapon. To bring down the art system it is necessary to call for years without art, a period of three years - 1977 to 1980 - when artists will not produce work, sell work, permit work to go on exhibitions, and refuse collaboration with any part of the publicity machinery of the art world. This total withdrawal of labor is the most extreme collective challenge that artists can make to the state. The years without art will see the collapse of many private galleries. Museums and cultural institutions handling contemporary art will be severely hit, suffer loss of funds, and will have to reduce their staff. National and local government institutions will be in serious trouble. Art magazines will fold. The international ramifications of the dealer/museum/publicity complex make for vulnerability; it is a system that is keyed to a continuous juggling of artists, finance, works and information - damage one part, and the effect is felt world-wide.

Three years is the minimum period required to cripple the system, whilst a longer period of time would create difficulties for artists. The very small number of artists who live from the practice of art are sufficiently wealthy to live on their capital for three years. The vast majority of people who produce art have to subsidise their work by other means; they will, in fact, be saving money and time. Most people who practice art never sell their work at a profit, do not get the chance to exhibit their work under proper conditions, and are unmentioned by the publicity organs. Some artist may find it difficult to restrain themselves from producing art. These artist will be invited to enter camps, where making of art works is forbidden, and where any work produced is destroyed at regular intervals. In place of the practice of art, people can spend timeon the numerous historical, esthetic and social issues facing art. It will be necessary to construct more equitable forms for marketing, exhibiting and publicising art in the future. As the twentieth century has progressed, capitalism has smothered art - the deep surgery of the years without art will give it a new chance." (Gustav Metzger, 1974)

The protest was a failure. No other artist signed up for the art strike, only confirming Metzger's conviction that artists are "disgusting bastards."

Null Object: Gustav Metzger thinks about nothing, 2012.

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A 2012 collaboration between London Fieldworks (Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson), Harvard medical roboticist and haptics researcher Yaroslav Tenzer, and software designer Jonny Bradley, along with Gustav Metzger. What kind of art emerges if the artist thinks about nothing? The project links a computer-brain interface with industrial manufacturing technology to produce a sculpture.

"Using bespoke software, London Fieldworks have produced 3D shape information from electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of artist Gustav Metzger as he attempted to think about nothing. This data was translated into instructions for a manufacturing robot, which carved out the shapes from the interior of a block of Portland stone to create a void space.The project utilised a relational database comprising of several hundred digital EEG recordings from participants who have donated their brainwaves from the UK, Europe and USA. These EEGs were recorded while the participants perceived depth information within random-dot autostereograms and were instrumental in the translation of Metzger's EEG (thinking about nothing) into control instructions for the manufacturing robot." (Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson, 2012)

Links

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Credits

All reproductions © Gustav Metzger, except Null Object: Gustav Metzger thinks about nothing © London Fieldworks.