TALKER is a self-published print project that explores approaches to performance-making through long-form interviews. Each issue focuses on an individual practitioner.

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