'Anarchitecture' ?
Always interested in coming across new artists.
So following a recommendation from my tutor, I've set off to learn more about this American artist who, it seems, used a number of media to document his work, including video, film and photography. His work includes performance and recycling pieces, space and texture works and what are described as his 'building cuts'. He also came up with the term 'Anarchitecture', a conflation of the words anarchy and architecture in the 1970s to suggest an interest in voids,gaps and left over spaces.His works only survives now in photographic and film images and in sculptural fragments.
But it was the 'building cuts' aspect that has really intrigued me....
'Compelled to focus attention on the dehumanization of the modern world, Matta-Clark developed a personal idiom that combined Minimalism and Surrealism with urban architecture. Using abandoned buildings for his medium and wielding a chainsaw as his instrument, he cut into the structures, creating unexpected apertures and incisions.(1)
A good example is 'Splitting' seen below:
'
'
In
1974 Matta-Clark operated on a two-story home in New Jersey slated for
demolition, effectively splitting it down the middle. The light from
the incision invaded the interior and united the rooms with a swath of
brilliance. The artist photographed his work and created a collage of
prints, the unconventional disposition of which re-creates the
disorienting experience of the unprecedented destruction' (2)The Metropolitan Museum of Art online collection at :
 |
| ©Gordon Matta-Clark 1974 |
Medium:
Chromogenic prints mounted on board
Dimensions:
101.6 x 76.2 cm (40 x 30 in.)
Classification:
Photographs
Credit Line:
Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1992
Accession Number:
1992.5067
Rights and Reproduction:
© 2002 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
I really like the angle of this image, the use of light together with the juxtaposition of the photgraphic images to emphasise the drama of the 'cut'.
'Conical Intersect' (1975) - another piece that I really liked. Made for the Bienal de Paris de 1975, this work is a torqued, spiralling 'cut' into two derelict Parisian seventieth century buildings which were adjacent to the construction site of the Pompidou Centre.
 |
| ©Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artists Rights Society ,New York |
This gelatin silver print, part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art collection, shows the completed work.The shot very effectively conveys the creative 'thrust' of the work, the opening of the buildings to light and air while showing the impermanence of urban construction.I find both the work and the resulting image visually exciting..
There are also a number of videos around showing the construction of 'Conical Intersect'. I particularly like this one on YouTube as it also shows the connection to passers-by who must have been quite perplexed at what they were seeing happening in front of them as they walked or drove by day by day :
http://youtu.be/n6p916ufF84
(1) & (2) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Online Collection at http://goo.gl/Wpa8ey
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