The Cuttings of Gordon Matta-Clark
I first read of Gordon Matta-Clark in the September issue of Dwell magazine, in an article written by Amber Bravo. An architecture student from Cornell turned artist, Matta-Clark studied in France for a time and was greatly influenced by the deconstuctionist philosophers there, and the concept of detournement-”the reuse of pre-existing artistic elements in a new ensemble” [from Wikipedia]. He is famous for his series of ‘cuttings’ in the 70′s in which he literally cut into/through buildings and photographed the new spatial qualities, even going so far as to cut an entire home in half [a gift from friends] in the work Splitting. Matta-Clark also had a series of excavation pieces, and performance art pieces as well.
“Crow tells an amusing anecdote about how Matta-Clark stuck the needle into the architectural establishment when he was invited to exhibit with the New York Five in 1976. He made Peter Eisenman furious when, as part of a piece called Window Blow-Out, he shot holes through all the windows in the gallery of the Institute for Architecture and Urban Resources. If only briefly, Matta-Clark had displaced the institute to the South Bronx.” [from Icon magazine]

Splitting, 1974

Splitting, 1974
While Matta-Clark is no longer with us, his work is exhibited [the photos, anyways] in galleries across the country [images shown are from San Fran's Museum of Modern Art]. Also, peep the book of his work, Object to be Destroyed, an inexpensive must-have, and some others too.
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Posted: August 23rd, 2006
at 9:05am by orangemenace
Categories: architecture,art,photo
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