Currently reading: Gordon Matta-Clark: The Space Between. (2003). James Attlee & Lisa le Feuvre. Nazraeli Press.
This exhibition catalogue from the retrospective of the late Gordon Matta Clark (1943-1978) at the CCA Glasgow presents the life work of ‘anarchitect’ and godson of Marcel Duchamp’s second wife Alexina ‘Teeny’ Duchamp.
“A Duchampian fascination with puns, spelling ruptures, and playing on words run through Matta-Clark’s practice.” notes Le Feuvre (p.9).
Matta-Clark came to my attention with Garbage Wall (1970) in a regular google search for art works of garbage. He used garbage from the locality with cement to make the wall.
Le Feuvre (exhibition curator) writes; “Temporality was a crucial element to Matta-Clark’s work within its own moment of making, and historical distance brings an added dimension to its importance.” (p.8)
Garbage Wall was also installed at this show at the CCA and like previously installation, appears as the first encounter: “At the CCA the journey through the work begins with a recreation of Garbage Wall, a prototype building construction. Installed in the foyer gallery, which is viewable from the street, Garbage Wall connects Matta-Clark’s work to the city of Glasgow with the material used to construct the wall sourced from the areas surrounding the CCA. (p.10).
James Attlee provides some background to Matta-Clark’s life and work and introduces an array of synonymous terms to the previously assigned category of ‘garbage’.
“His palette was the flotsam and jetsam, the discarded and ignored rubbish of modern life, the waste products of the capitalist machine.” (p.13).
Quoted from Gordon Matta-Clark: A Retrospective exhib cat, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 1985, p.19: “John Baldessari described him as “a messy minimalist; he liked big rough edges.”
“During the last months of his life, Matta-Clark was involved in the planning of a project called Twentieth Century Ruins, conceived by Alanna Heiss. The intention was to use the buildings on 54th street as the site of installations by a number of artists. The buildings would remain in place three years, a longevity that was attractive to Matta-Clark, who was ready to undertake what he called some “serious architectural renovation.” (p.86)
The plates throughout the catalogue have been stuck in much like you might find in a scrap book. Figure 12: Jacks, Under Brooklyn Bridge, 1971. Still from Fire Child. sheds further light on Garbage Wall:
“The Brooklyn Bridge Event was an annual celebration of the construction of the bridge, with the space below becoming a site for artists an performers. At the 1971 event, organised by Alanna Heiss, Matta-Clark made a number of works which included the pieces Garbage Wall, Fire Child and Jacks shown in this [CCA] exhibition.
These works explore the ways that architecture can be created out of waste. Fire Child records the building of Garbage Wall, a remake of a work made in 1970 at St Marks Church, New York in an event entitled Homesteading, an Exercise in Curbside Living. Here Garbage Wall was used as a backdrop for acting out a series of household chores, and at the end of the event it was thrown in a dumpster hired for the occasion. Constructed out of other people’s throwaways moulded together with tar and plaster, Garbage Wall is an architectural prototype. At CCA a Garbage Wall sits in the first room entered and is viewable from the street, at the AA one sits on a terrace viewable from the café, with both accompanied by instructions of how to make a garbage wall.”
Jane Crawford recalls: “When he did the Brooklyn bridge Project, there was a homeless man beneath the bridge who had built this house out of cardboard and was living there. And so Gordon looked at this house, and knew that with his architectural experience he could do better. So he took the material that he found under the Brooklyn Bridge and he did two things. He built Jacks, which was [made] out of old car parts, but was waterproof. And then he made these architectural elements out of garbage. The materials were free. I think he did buy some cement at one point, but cement is very cheap, and he built a house out of that. And so by doing these performances right there under the Brooklyn Bridge, the homeless people were able to see it, and the idea was that they would go out and do something better.”
