Matta-Clarking

<p>The work of Gordon Matta-Clark is an exploration of the dissolution of elements, the breakdown of composition, revealing flaws in not only the building, but flaws Matta- Clark saw in political issues. The work Splitting (1974) serves to highlight the barriers formed by socioeconomics. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />The breakdown of composition is suggestive of a deconstructive process. Deconstruction was a term coined by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Derrida's readings of philosophical and literary texts show that, by taking the unspoken or unformulated propositions of a text literally, by showing the subtle internal contradictions, the text can be shown to be saying something quite other than that which it appears to be saying. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />Deconstruction has been subsequently applied to architecture, particularly by Peter Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi. Deconstruction in architecture necessitates the identification of an 'archetype', to be an equivalent to Derrida's 'archetext', typically represented by classical narrative structures. This architectural equivalent must therefore represent an archetypal source. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />The work Splitting by Gordon Matta-Clark dealt with the suburban house as such an archetype. This recognizable image for Matta-Clark symbolized the stable middle-class American home as an immutable entity. The cuttings in Splitting sought to deconstruct this vision, in an attempt to liberate the form of the house, which had come to symbolize containment and suburban alienation. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />Whereas Derrida's deconstruction is one affecting conceptual structure, Matta-Clark's 'deconstruction' is one affecting, or rather illuminating, physical structure. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />A second reading of a deconstructive approach in architecture has been formulated by Mark Wigley. Wigley's Deconstructivism has the immediate appearance of simply proposing a precedent in the work of the Russian Constructivists (and Suprematists). Wigley adds to this his thesis of the distortion of form by flaws intrinsic to the structure, his 'alien'. The ideas of precedent and of the alien do not on the whole make for a coherent thesis. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />If Matta-Clark has an 'alien', it is an alien which creates a distortion of composition, a de-composition, rather than an alien which creates a distortion of construction, a de- construction. Whereas the flaws in Deconstructivism are intrinsic to the structure, the flaws in Matta- Clark's works are intrinsic to the composition. The de-composition is a breakdown of the composition of elements; walls, floors, windows, doors. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />De-composition is inherently linked with the second law of thermodynamics, which can be paraphrased by the concept of entropy, a measure of disorder. Entropy is in effect a measure of breakdown. This links the work of Gordon Matta-Clark with the work of his contemporary Robert Smithson, who sought to capture a sense of the irreversibility of the dissolution of things, typified by the piece Partially Buried Woodshed (1970). <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />Comparisons have been drawn between Frank Gehry's own house and the work of Matta- Clark, suggesting a close parallel in their ideas. The breakdown of elements in Gehry's house in Santa Monica (1978) defines the breakdown of the pattern of the extended family as social focus and anchor to the community at large, evoked by the prairie house aesthetic of Frank Lloyd Wright. The fragmentation of the family, together with the intrusive nature of the car, are the factors which have created an impermanence of the typical social structure. This impermanent nature has influenced the make-up of Gehry's house in much the same way that Matta-Clark's work Splitting was influenced by a desire to question the archetypal notion of the middle-class American home. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />The dissertation aims to suggest that there are parallells between the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, and between certain aspects of Deconstructionist architecture. It is suggested that whereas Derrida's Deconstruction is one affecting conceptual structure, Matta- Clark's 'deconstruction' is one affecting, or rather illuminating, physical structure, and whereas the flaws in Deconstructivism are intrinsic to the structure, the flaws in Matta-Clark's works are intrinsic to the composition. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />De-composition is proposed as being the underlying strategy of Matta-Clark's work. This entropological process combines the breakdown implied by both Deconstruction and Deconstructivism, thereby providing a unification of these two philosophies. <br />&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt; <br />Gordon Matta-Clark was ahead of his time, pre-empting the application of Deconstruction to architecture. His untimely death in 1978 cut short the work of an artist who foresaw the rise of Deconstructionist architecture. To paraphrase Geoffrey Broadbent, there is a lot of Deconstructionist architecture about, and there is more to come. Geoffrey Broadbent, The Architecture of Deconstruction, in Jorge Glusberg (ed), Deconstruction; A Student Guide, Academy Editions, London 1991, p.11 But perhaps Gordon Matta-Clark was there first.</p>