Gordon Matta-Clark

As i have mentioned previously this blog started purely as a blog for new contemporay art, but the more posts i write i find myself wanting to share and talk about older artists who have shaped my own practice. American artist Gordon Matta-Clark, is most famous for his site specific work and ‘building cuts’ which he produced in the sevenites. These were temporary works created by sawing and carving sections out of buildings, most of which were scheduled to be destroyed, he documented these pieces though photography and film a process which i have become increasingly intrested in within my own practice. The piece Wallspaper (1972) was an installation at the Greene Street gallery in New York, the series of work demonstarted Matta-Clarks method of working through an idea using repetition and representations. Walls consisted of photographs documenting the exposed walls of buildings in New York that were about to be torn down, because Matta-Clark used the same material a number of times the question, ‘what is the work?’ was often asked. Does the work become erased as it is re-used or is this piece only representing an action or place through documentation? Visitors were also invited to take away sheets of the printed matter from the stacks dotted around the exhibition, in a similar was to the artist Felix-Gonzalez-Torres whom i wrote about yesterday.