Gordon Matta Clark
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Gordon Matta-Clark was an American artist known for his unconventional works that involved cutting into and reconfiguring existing structures. He created site-specific works from the early 1970s until his death in 1978 by slicing through walls, floors, and roofs of buildings slated for demolition. Matta-Clark believed this process could transform spaces and allow people to experience them in new ways. Some of his notable works included Bronx Floor, Splitting, and Conical Intersect, where he cut unusual shapes into buildings. He was interested in uncovering forgotten underground spaces and exploring the boundaries of architecture, property, and social structures through his artistic interventions.
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Gordon Matta Clark
- 1. Gordon Matta-Clark 1943-1978 Jennifer Wells
- 2. “By un-doing a building there are many aspects of the social condition against which I am gesturing: to open a state of enclosure which had been preconditioned not only by physical necessity but by the industry that profligates suburban and urban boxes as a context for insuring a passive, isolated consumer—a virtually captive audience.” Gordon Matta- Clark, 1977
- 3. Bronx Floor: Floor Hole Bronx Floors: Threshole 1972 Gelatin Silver Prints “It was an activity that attempted to transform place into a state of mind by opening walls where doors never were or looking beneath the carpet to clear away the floor.”
- 4. Reality Properties: Fake Estates "Maspeth Onion" (Block 2406, Lot 148), 1973 Gelatin silver print and documents Reality Properties: Fake Estates, "Jamaica Curb," Block 10142, Lot 15, 1978 Collaged gelatin silver prints, deed, and three maps Reality Positions: Fake Estates, "Staten Island," Block 1224, Lot 12, 1978 Collaged gelatin silver prints, deed, and documents
- 5. “When I bought those properties at the New York City Auction the description of them that always excited me the most was ‘inaccessible.’ They were a group of fifteen micro-parcels of land. In Queens, left-over properties from an architects drawing. One or two of the prize ones were a foot strip down somebody’s driveway and a square foot of sidewalk. And the others were kerbstones and gutterspace. What I basically wanted to do was to designate spaces that wouldn’t be seen and certainly not occupied. Buying them was my own take on the strangeness of the existing property demarcation lines. Property is so all-pervasive/ Everyone’s notion of ownership is determined by the use factor.
- 6. A W-Hole House: Roof Top Atrium 1973 Gelatin silver prints
- 7. in Genoa, Italy for the 2002 solo exhibition A W-Hole House A recreation of wall cuts from at David Zwirner, New York a room of A W-Hole House 1973
- 8. Splitting 1974 Collaged gelatin silver prints Framed: 41 x 31 inches (104.1 x 78.7 cm)
- 9. “So while this small not so happy house got cut and shifted Documentation of Splitting out of place, the action took only minutes of the building’s history. Yet by my view all those pent-up lives respecting 1974 the tiny cramped rooms were suddenly flooded with direct sunlight.”
- 10. at the 2008 exhibition Cut: Revealing the Section at the San Installation view of Splitting: Francisco Museum of Modern Art Four Corners 1974
- 11. Day's End (Pier 52) 1975 Chromogenic print Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome) Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome)
- 12. “During the afternoon the sun shines through a cat’s-eye-like ‘rose window’ in the west wall. At first a silver and then a strongly defined shape of light continues to wander into the wharf until the whole pier is fully illuminated at dusk. Below the rear ‘wall-hole’ is another larger quarter circular cut opening the floor of the south-west corner to a turbulent view of the Hudson water. The water and sun move constantly in the pier throughout the day in what I see as an indoor park.
- 13. Conical Intersect 1975 Silver dye bleach print (Cibachrome) Collaged gelatin silver prints
- 14. Documentation of Conical Intersect 1975 in Paris
- 15. Office Baroque 1977 Silver dye bleach prints (Cibachrome)
- 16. in Antwerp, Belgium Documentation of Office Baroque 1977
- 17. Building fragment: parquet wood flooring, drywall, and Office Baroque wood; and silver dye bleach print 1977
- 18. Circus Circus (Carribean Orange) 1977 1978 Silver dye bleach prints (Cibachrome)
- 19. at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Documentation of Circus (Carribean Orange) 1978
- 20. Sous-Sols de Paris: Bones and Bottles Sous-Sols de Paris: Les Halles Sous-Sols de Paris: Basilica 1977 Chromogenic prints
- 21. “In fact, the next area that interests me is an expedition into the underground: a search for the forgotten spaces left buried under the city either as historical reserve or as surviving reminders of lost projects and fantasies, such as the famed Phantom Railroad. This activity would include mapping and breaking or digging into these lost foundations: working back into society from beneath. Although the original idea involved possible subversive arts, I am now more interested in the act of search and discovery. This activity should bring art out of the gallery and into sewers.”
- 22. Questions?