Nonetheless, his genre-bending art, straddling the line between architecture and art and also foreshadowing the advent of street installations and temporary art, is prophetic.
[image from Little Paper Planes]While his photography is excellent, he's most famous for the cuts that he made through buildings. Inspired by his architectural training, where section and floor plane cuts are the norm, Matta-Clark decided to turn his drawings into reality.
[image from The Curated Image]
On a similar note, Truth, the architectural graffiti artist from back east (Poland, to be exact), is still at it.
[image from Truth]
[image from The Curated Image]He would remove the facades of buildings or cut holes through an entire building, revealing its guts and interior spaces.
[image from Truth]In an earlier article, we looked at some fantastical ways that this sort of thinking could go. It's interesting because he's reevaluating the clandestine art on another level. While the idea of 3D wall-mounted art has been effectively exploited for years, no one (to my knowledge) has tried something similar in the graffiti world.
The closest thing I can come up with is the famous story of Carlos Scarpa and his students. The story goes that they wanted to build a bridge over one of the canals in Venice. They slaved and labored over the design, coming up with something they could build and deploy quickly. Furthermore, they felt that a bridge was necessary at their chosen spot.
The authorities nixed the idea because of a preservation law that stated that nothing could be added or removed from the given site. They wanted to preserve the area as is. Scarpa and his progeny rebelled by fabricating the entire bridge in their studio. Late one night, they ventured into the darkness and installed the bridge in a matter of hours.
In the morning, the people of Venice awoke to the new bridge. Many of the city officials wanted to tear it down. However, because of the law (nothing removed, nothing added) they couldn't remove the bridge as it was already there. Fun stuff.
[image from Truth]
The closest thing I can come up with is the famous story of Carlos Scarpa and his students. The story goes that they wanted to build a bridge over one of the canals in Venice. They slaved and labored over the design, coming up with something they could build and deploy quickly. Furthermore, they felt that a bridge was necessary at their chosen spot.
The authorities nixed the idea because of a preservation law that stated that nothing could be added or removed from the given site. They wanted to preserve the area as is. Scarpa and his progeny rebelled by fabricating the entire bridge in their studio. Late one night, they ventured into the darkness and installed the bridge in a matter of hours.
In the morning, the people of Venice awoke to the new bridge. Many of the city officials wanted to tear it down. However, because of the law (nothing removed, nothing added) they couldn't remove the bridge as it was already there. Fun stuff.
[image from Truth]It's interesting because Scarpa one-upped Truth in a couple ways. He engaged in a similar act of arguably greater scale and created something useful and place-making. At the same time, what makes Truth's work so interesting is it's complete lack of context. It takes even less note of its surroundings than most graffiti writers.
What if Truth actually went Matta-Clark on someone and cut out a portion of their building out while they were gone? The traveler comes home to find a quarter of his facade missing. Furious, he calls the authorities and arranges with a contractor to have the wall rebuilt.
In the meantime, he goes out for another weekend on business, with nothing but a tarp covering the gaping whole in his faced. When he returns, he's surprised yet again. Truth has replaced his facade with a chunk from another building. Essentially, he has swapped 1/4 of the facades of two buildings, he's even made sure that the facades seal together. The owner ends up liking the new addition saying "it gives the house character," and decides to drop the charges.
On another note, I think you could go all over the place with this cutting-the-facade out thing. In many cities, we get a lot of hoopla, much of it justified, over the loss of old urban fabric, when a building is demolished to make way for something newer (and often more bland). What if architects integrated the old charming facade throughout the building? The exterior, plaster, glass, and aluminum, would be all new, but upon entering, you would travel back in time to the old building, slices of which would be found throughout, in rooms, hallways, and bathrooms.
Or what if a traveler loved a place he visited and wanted to take a piece of it with him? You go to Indonesia and fall in love with a little bungalow on Sumatra. You just can't bear to part with it completely, so you have part of the wall sliced out and shipped back home
...And there it sits, right across from your mantle.
What if Truth actually went Matta-Clark on someone and cut out a portion of their building out while they were gone? The traveler comes home to find a quarter of his facade missing. Furious, he calls the authorities and arranges with a contractor to have the wall rebuilt.
In the meantime, he goes out for another weekend on business, with nothing but a tarp covering the gaping whole in his faced. When he returns, he's surprised yet again. Truth has replaced his facade with a chunk from another building. Essentially, he has swapped 1/4 of the facades of two buildings, he's even made sure that the facades seal together. The owner ends up liking the new addition saying "it gives the house character," and decides to drop the charges.
On another note, I think you could go all over the place with this cutting-the-facade out thing. In many cities, we get a lot of hoopla, much of it justified, over the loss of old urban fabric, when a building is demolished to make way for something newer (and often more bland). What if architects integrated the old charming facade throughout the building? The exterior, plaster, glass, and aluminum, would be all new, but upon entering, you would travel back in time to the old building, slices of which would be found throughout, in rooms, hallways, and bathrooms.Or what if a traveler loved a place he visited and wanted to take a piece of it with him? You go to Indonesia and fall in love with a little bungalow on Sumatra. You just can't bear to part with it completely, so you have part of the wall sliced out and shipped back home
...And there it sits, right across from your mantle.
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