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From: Ben Zanoe Category: Art Date: 07 October 2009 Time: 02:56 PM Review: I watched , for the first time, a Fourth Plinther, well alright the third time but the first successful time that I saw anything with any real meaning. The guy's name was Patrick he was in his fifties and basically seemed very affable approachable and presented the kind of human face that maybe Gormley would consider, exemplified his "plan"for the plinth. Generally though, my feeling is that Gormley was given the plinth without anyone, especially him thinking it through because apart from the odd breakthrough you couldn't say its done anything Speakers Corner or Big Brother haven't achieved apart from find a new audience perhaps. At the Serpentine Gallery right now until November 8th a relatively little known artist is showing his work, an 83 year old man who is quite the opposite in disposition to both Anthony Gormley and Damien Hirst, that may seem a ridiculous comparison but unfortunately it must be made because Gustav Metzger has avoided the sort of bigging up tactics employed by everyone else despite his compellingly perishable art, his radical approach, his commitment to the environment, his political honesty from the late 1950's to now. Upon entering the Serpentine Gallery the visitor is asked to choose a page of news-copy exemplifying "the credit crunch", "extinction" and "the way we live now" from various newspapers, nothing is over explicit but one feels compelled to find copy that is effectively as subversive as the "placing" of news-copy undertaken by Metzger, who see's the newspaper as a reflection of our times, the selected pages give an incredibly subtle reading of the way visitors to the show are thinking, criticism about the impact of this piece find it too subtle but that is the whole point of subversion and subterfuge it is bloody subtle. There's a wide terrain in Gustav Metzgers reflections, there are images concealed by shrouds which the visitor must crawl beneath to see an image of man's crawling cruelty to mankind, there is a wall hung image covered by a shroud which the interactive visitor must go behind to view the content simultaniously re-enacting the action, there are more direct images of nazi oppresion and cruelty but these images always carry an interactive element, like the photograph obscured or destroyed by being welded into two sheets of steel. At the Gallery, we catch a glimpse of Metzger, not a tall man, self effacing but with a great spark of facination, looking at the reaction to his work with a mixture of curiosity and satisfaction, a very quiet show, YOU have do the looking unlike the Plinth or the fact that Damien Hirst has decided he likes painting, after all and has gone to all the trouble of inviting Sarah Thornton down to leafy Devon, where she'll be wined and dined with Damiens surfer wife in their acres and acres of Victor Pinchuk selected and payed for by money stolen from Soviet Corruption spread. Listening to Damien Hirsts furtive little bursts of confident northern patter, clever little twists, clear little points about Lehmans Crash day, or Francis Bacon or his little dogs pink stain of paint and seeing Gustav Metzger hesitating to make a definite statement, weighing up the potential and probably being a little too self critical but not feeling confident enough to make brazen statement, such polarities, Hirst says he's always been certain theres not a God, it's an easy thing for anyone to say these days, except Hirsts work is unbelievably catholic and Gustav Metzgers work is unbelievably subversive. Protest and Survive or Survive and Protest?