Gordon Matta- Clark is an experimental photographer and videographer who tore apart pieces of dilapidated buildings at Pier 52 where Gansevoort Street meets the Hudson River to transform them into the “temple to sun and water.”
Matta-Clark’s Day’s End, Days End Pier 52.1, Untitled, Days End Pier 52.2 and Days End Pier 52.3 are the first pieces brought to the viewer’s attention. The additional documentation of the original art photographs of Day’s End bring more visuals to the surface and public view. The sun’s ray burst through the man made destroyed buildings, consigning the building to a change of use from warehouse to sun temple.
Photo Credit: Karina Kovac
Also, included in the exhibit is such notable names as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alvin Baltrop and Jimmy Wright. They take a different approach to downtown scenes in the 1970s and early 1980s. Instead of trying to create poetic beauty in unlikely abandoned places, they glance at the urbanized humans in this side of the city.
The collection shows the marginalized people in these areas, including the underground LGBTQ+ community and African Americans. These people have found a commonality together in these forgotten corners of the Meatpacking district. One photograph Marsh P. Johnson (1975-86, print date unknown) by Alvin Baltrop of a smiling Marsha P. Johnson decked out with jewelry and makeup reminds us of how confident someone can be in uncertain times because they have a community.
Photo Credit: Karina Kovac
Godrdon Matta-Clark, born Gorgan Roberto Echaurren Matta, was born June 22, 1943 to two artists, Anne Clark and Roberto Matta. It was no surprise Clark would grow up and explore a similar field. Being the godson of Marcel Duchamp’s wife Teeny must have added to the creative mindset.
Starting out by studying architecture at Cornell University and later moving to Paris and studying French literature, he began practicing what he called “Anarchitecture.” These site-specific works often occurred when Clark would notice derelict buildings already scheduled for demolition and deconstruct them, making a statement on excess and consumerism in our society at the time.
Clark and his conceptualism contemporaries “created moments of poetry and beauty in unlikely places. Others raised concerns about the privatization of space and the displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly people of color–issues that are equally relevant today,” writes the exhibit wall entrance.
The exhibit is organized by Laura Phipps and Christie Mitchell, the assistant curator and senior curatorial assistant.
