From April 2nd-May 4th, The David Zwirner Gallery, located on West 19th Street, will be presenting an exhibition that showcases the work of the artist Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), and is curated by Jessamyn Fior.
Since the 1970s, Clark has been deconstructing, abstracting and refiguring architectural spaces to expose the unknown potentiality that lay within urban landscapes and infrastructure. This exhibition displays his later works, showing the extent of innovation and daringness that this artist adopted into his practice. The clever organization of these works into three parts that explore different levels of the cityscape provides a clear sense of the journey that Clark took to explore urban architecture, and its inexhaustible layers, perspectives and interrelating components. Moreover, throughout the exhibition, intermittent references to the death of his younger brother, who committed suicide in 1976 by jumping off of a building, create the overall feeling of subtle, yet powerful poignancy.
One highlight from the first part of the exhibition is “City Slivers” (1976) a film that presents narrow, vertical fragments of busy streets, revolving doors, building facades and skyscrapers, all skillfully spliced together to provide the viewer with multiple perspectives of the cityscape. A line of text runs throughout the film, which contains records of the grants that he received, as well as a subtle reference to the tragic death of his younger brother. Overall, the way in which the film uses verticality to convey a sense of continuous downward motion and also suggests the inexhaustible depth of the cityscape, evokes a sense of poignancy in the memory of his brother’s tragic death.
A highlight of the second part of the exhibition is “Substrait” (1976), a film that documents Clark’s journey through the underground realms of New York City, including burial chambers underneath The Cathedral of St. John The Divine, the tracks underneath Grand Central Station, as well as sewage structures. Throughout the film, various strips of sound add a dimension of mystery and complexity to the work, furthering the viewer’s sense of the undiscovered potentials that lie beneath the surface of the urban environment.
A major highlight from the last section of the exhibition is “Jacob’s Ladder” (1977). This work consists of film stills that document Clark’s project for Documenta 6 in Kassel Germany, which included an aerial dwelling sight that ultimately amounted to a long, woven net attached to a three-story chimney. The work causes the viewer to acknowledge the potentiality of the space above his or her line of vision. The biblical reference to the Old Testament story of Jacob’s dream, which consisted of a staircase connecting Heaven and Earth, leads the viewer to the possibility of connecting with the high, intangible space of the sky. Moreover, the title also references the story of the two rival brothers, Jacob and Esau, and adds another poignant reference to the relationship between Clark and his dead brother.
Overall, this is an exciting exhibition that will challenge you to think about the urban environment and its unexplored potentials that exist both above and below the street-level realm of city life.