Gordon Matta Clark: Splitting, 1974

Splitting, 1974

Chromogenic prints mounted on board

(101.6 x 76.2 cm)

I really love Gordon Matta Clarks photographs. In this series, Splitting, Gordon Matta Clark took photos of an old Suburban Villa and cut it into 2. 

The angles of the photographs are very interesting and the cuts use light to connect each of the spaces. Each of the photographs show the same space but viewed from different angles, the first is in colour while the second is in black and white. I believe that the way the photos are arranged in a collage really accentuate the angles in the photographs and although they have been arranged randomly the photographs are connected very well. 

Each set of photographs shows an abandoned space giving the feeling of emptiness and loneliness but the irregular framing of the photographs, and the form of the arrangement give it more of a iritated or aggressive mood in comparison to a more formal photograph framed within a regular shape (square or rectangle). The cut in the centre of the structure also helps your eye to move from the top to the bottom of the arrangement.

Gordon Matta Clark focused mainly on sites for his photography and he is most famous for his works which involved him creating series of building cuts in ceilings walls and floors of abandoned buildings. He was interested in deconstructivism, and this was evident in his photographs and how he would perform literal deconstructions on buildings. The process of deconstruction is about creating a simple common form and altering it through cutting, stretching, twisting and other forms of manipulation. Gordon Matta Clark has done this by taking a simple house cutting an entire section out of it, as well as turn his camera to create alternative angles and twisting the actual photographs to create a distorted arrangement. 

 

 

Gordon Matta-Clark
Conical Intersect (detail), 1975

(Size and Media unknown)