Linocut Workshop

I recently signed up for a linocut workshop where I carried out a reductive method which meant that to construct  the print I had to gradually destroy the plate in order to print the layers. This disintegration and destructive process led me to a movement called, Auto-Destructive Art which began during the 1960s by Gustav Metzger.

The particular work I was interested in was the Southbank Demonstration where he used hydrochloric acid on nylon as a protest against nuclear weapons. This acid was painted onto the fabric so that it would gradually dissolve away.

Manifesto:

'...self destructive paintings, 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...[and] can be machine produced and factory assembled....[it's] life time varying from a few moments to twenty years...'


Machine produced - newspapers, plastic bags, paper, fabric scraps - the waste of consumerism