Author: gregpope

Gordon Matta-Clark : Anarchitect

Underground and Overground in New York and Paris

Gordon Matta-Clark was one of the most influential artists of his generation, until his premature death in 1978. His ‘building cuts’, consisting of aggressive interventions on the structure of derelict buildings, are still regarded as emblematic works. None of these constructions are still in existence. All that remains are photographic documents, films and drawings.

Fresh Kill (1972 / 16mm 13mins)
This film shows the destruction of  Matta-Clark’s car, named Herman Maydag, by a a bulldozer in a rubbish dump. First premiered at Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972.

Conical Intersect (1975, 16mm 19mins)
For the Paris Biennale in 1975, Matta-Clark made a section in two terraced houses in the Georges Pompidou center, in the Les Halles district. The cut, in the shape of a distorted cone, was a reference to Anthony McCall’s film, Line Describing A Cone. This film is all that remains of the event.

Substrait, Underground Dallies (1976, 30mins, 16mm)
Exploring the variety and complexity of underground spaces of New York City : New York Central railroad tracks, Grand Central Station, 13th Street, Croton Aqueduct .

August 17^th

LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF                      Thom Andersen (US, 2014, 173mins, HDvideo)

 

Los Angeles. Angel City. Celluloid City. A city where films and dreams and architecture collide and mutate in endless new combinations.

Andersen’s epic and masterfully narrated collage is a massive tapestry of over 200 film clips exploring facets of the city as captured through the lenses of Hollywood movie cameras from the last 100 years.

In this film made of films, Andersen plays detective – revisiting the scenes of cinematic crimes and triumphs and unraveling the tangled relationship between the movies and a great Californian metropolis.

One of cinema’s most intelligent and mesmerising film essays, it charts Hollywood’s ‘war against modern architecture’, alongside an examination of the starring roles certain buildings have played across multiple movies.

From Blade Runner to Laurel and Hardy, Chinatown to Who Framed Roger Rabbit to L.A. Confidential and many, many more; this is a forensic examination of the truths and fictions that the movies have woven into LA’s urban fabric.

The title is taken from a gay porno classic also called Los Angeles Plays Itself.